Arthur Brooks on Finding Authentic Happiness and Making Poverty Escapable | Season 1 | Ep 6

07/13/21 • 28 min

3 Listeners

The United States is the most prosperous and advanced nation in the history of humanity—but it's currently facing a crisis of happiness. What went wrong?

Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor, best-selling author, and renowned social scientist, has dedicated himself to tackling America's satisfaction deficit, and in this episode, he reveals his four keys to authentic happiness. (Not on the list: riches, power, or fame). Tempted to make a bucket list to get as much as possible out of life? Brooks shows how this, along with other popular ideas about how to feel more satisfied, can actually produce the opposite effect.

One of the biggest drags on happiness in society is poverty. Having spent years seeking the best way to combat this curse as former president of the American Enterprise Institute, Brooks shares insight on why America's War on Poverty has failed. Could the key to transforming lives lie in shifting our approach from making poverty bearable, to making it truly escapable?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.joelonsdale.com

The United States is the most prosperous and advanced nation in the history of humanity—but it's currently facing a crisis of happiness. What went wrong?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.joelonsdale.com

Previous Episode

Palmer Luckey on Creating Oculus Rift, Anduril, and Game-Changing Defense Tech | Season 1 Ep 5

Palmer Luckey is as close as it gets to a real-life Iron Man. As a teenager, he worked on virtual reality headsets until he eventually created the Oculus Rift, the most groundbreaking VR headset ever assembled. After single-handedly shaping the field of virtual reality, and selling Oculus to Facebook, he founded Anduril, one of the fastest-growing defense companies in America today.

While some American tech companies refuse to work with the U.S. military, Anduril is unabashed in its efforts to develop and deploy artificial intelligence, drone technology, and other advanced systems to defend America and its allies. In this conversation, Palmer discusses Anduril’s latest game-changing technologies, innovative ideas that can change the world, his favorite sci-fi novel — and the Fermi paradox! [Joe's venture capital firm is an investor in Anduril.]

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.joelonsdale.com

Next Episode

Sujay Jaswa: Billion Dollar Wins -- and Losses -- and Solving Silicon Valley's #1 Problem | Season 1 | Ep 7

How do you transform a startup into a household name? Ask Sujay Jaswa. When he joined Dropbox in 2010, the company had 16 million users. By the time he left in 2015, hundreds of millions of people relied on Dropbox for their daily web storage needs. As head of the business side of Dropbox and later CFO, Jaswa had a leading role in this transformation, building the business team from scratch and raising over a billion dollars.

Today, Jaswa serves as Founder and Managing Partner at the investment firm WndrCo and lectures on entrepreneurship at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). In this conversation, he discusses the keys to his success with Dropbox, Aura, and other winning ventures, while also reflecting on lessons learned from WndrCo's role with Quibi, a media venture led by his partner Jeffrey Katzenberg that raised over $1.75 billion but sold its assets after struggling to gain traction.

Jaswa also describes how the COVID vaccines are proof of American greatness, how he prefers to work with those with the courage to take intellectual risks, and why he believes affordable housing remains the biggest impediment to keeping Silicon Valley as the global tech hub. He speaks out against the top-down regulations that create artificial scarcity and calls for allowing denser housing to be built wherever possible, including in his own neighborhood.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.joelonsdale.com