1: The Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov was the second man to orbit the Earth.
In 1962, the year after his achievement, he visited the World’s Fair in Seattle.
When he was asked about his experience in space, he said: “Sometimes people are saying that God is out there. I was looking around attentively all day but I didn’t find anybody there. I saw neither angels nor God.”
“When smart people … continue reading
1: “My parents were, in many ways, the Odd Couple,” Arthur Brooks writes in The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
His father was a mathematician who earned a PhD in biostatistics.
“He loved the elegance of math and statistics and talked about these subjects constantly,” Arthur recalls. “During dinners when I was a kid, he would describe great unsolved problems and give us … continue reading
1: Arthur Brooks was four years old.
“My dad had to visit a sick friend and took me with him,” Arthur writes in his new book The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
“Unfortunately, children weren’t allowed up to the floors where the patients were. So he sat me in a lobby and told me to wait there.
“After what seemed like nine hours … continue reading
1: When you’re searching for something important in life, it helps to answer two questions.
“The first is general; the second, specific,” Arthur Brooks writes in The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
Exhibit one: Perhaps you want to find a spouse.
The general question is: “What are the characteristics of an appropriate mate?”
As in, what are the “general features of a person … continue reading
1: Human beings are really good at solving technical problems and answering specific, hard questions.
This ability has driven extraordinary progress in science and economics over the past five hundred years.
You likely believe that “while the world is incredibly complicated, with enough knowledge and hard work, every problem can be solved,” Arthur Brooks writes in The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
“And … continue reading
1: Happiness researcher Arthur Brooks was interviewing “a young striver” for his book The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
The man struggled to put his feelings into words. “Matter-of-factly, he told me about his virtual job, dating apps, social media friends, and video gaming,” Arthur writes.
“Most of his interview isn’t worth recounting,” he writes.
“But then, flatly, he said this: ‘I feel … continue reading
1: Arthur Brooks is a specialist in the science of happiness.
But in the fall of 2019, he wasn’t feeling very happy himself.
“I felt very unheimlich,” he writes in his new book The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
Unheimlich?
“That’s a German word that’s hard to translate precisely,” Arthur notes. “It means the gut feeling of uneasiness you get when things just…aren’t … continue reading
