Description

Mo Gawdat is a remarkable thinker and the Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], an elite team of engineers that comprise Google’s futuristic “dream factory.” Applying his superior skills of logic and problem solving to the issue of happiness, he proposes an algorithm based on an understanding of how the brain takes in and processes joy and sadness. Then he solves for happy.In 2001 Mo Gawdat realized that despite his incredible success, he was desperately unhappy. A lifelong learner, he attacked the problem as an engineer would: examining all the provable facts and scrupulously applying logic. Eventually, his countless hours of research and science proved successful, and he discovered the equation for permanent happiness.Thirteen years later, Mo’s algorithm would be put to the ultimate test. After the sudden death of his son, Ali, Mo and his family turned to his equation—and it saved them from despair. In dealing with the horrible loss, Mo found his mission: he would pull off the type of “moonshot” goal that he and his colleagues were always aiming for—he would share his equation with the world and help as many people as possible become happier.In Solve for Happy Mo questions some of the most fundamental aspects of our existence, shares the underlying reasons for suffering, and plots out a step-by-step process for achieving lifelong happiness and enduring contentment. He shows us how to view life through a clear lens, teaching us how to dispel the illusions that cloud our thinking; overcome the brain’s blind spots; and embrace five ultimate truths.No matter what obstacles we face, what burdens we bear, what trials we’ve experienced, we can all be content with our present situation and optimistic about the future.Recently I finished the book Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat.It was interesting and thought-provoking. It made me close the book many times and delve into the various ideas and concepts presented in simple language. It’s based on a personal tragedy that triggers the author to pen down his experience of life. In his hour of crisis, he dived deep into serious contemplation and formulated some theories from various sources and also from his own life-experiences. This book is a collection of such theories and concepts. One of the key highlights of this book is the concept that a child is born blissful, in a perfect happy state. As we grow, we lose this natural state by over-thinking and making things complicated. You buy a new smartphone which initially performs well but as you keep installing apps, it gets slower and slower and hangs at times. Just like your mobile, even you need a factory reset at times. But how? Read the book, I should say. There are small practical steps explained which are easy to follow. A single unpleasant incident seems to haunt us  much more than happiness from many joyful events. The mind remembers the bad, goes back to it, thinks about it and then suffers unnecessarily and all these take place automatically without our control. We should stop going back to unpleasant thoughts by forcing our mind to be pinned right onto the present moment. We can start by focusing on the things right in-front of our eyes –  the table, wall clock, a small bird through the window and so on. A simple exercise but can yield immediate results.Ebook here: