I had a wonderful conversation with a highly accomplished executive in the tech industry this morning. Part of our discussion centered around the question what to optimize our lives for.
Abraham Maslow observed in the Fifties that “Everyone I know who is happy is working well at something they consider important.” — which leads to Daniel Pink’s observation that performance and personal satisfaction (aka happiness) are directly correlated to autonomy, mastery and purpose. (Intrigued by the statement? Watch Dan’s excellent TED Talk).
And those are just two examples of researchers, scientists, anthropologists and other experts coming to essentially the same conclusion: Happiness is all about self-actualization and has little to nothing to do with the factors we usually optimize for like money, status, position…
Something to ponder on.
Happy Sunday fellow Heretics! :)