Solve for Happy

About the Author

Mo Gawdat is a former Chief Business Officer at Google X, the company's innovation lab. He is also an engineer by training and a serial entrepreneur, having built and led multiple tech startups. However, his life took a profound turn after the tragic and unexpected death of his son, Ali, in 2014. This devastating loss drove Gawdat to deeply explore the nature of happiness, leading to the creation of his book, Solve for Happy. Gawdat’s engineering background informs his analytical approach to understanding happiness, combining logic, science, and personal experience into a coherent and actionable philosophy. His mission is to share the equation he developed to maintain happiness in the face of life’s inevitable challenges and to help millions of people achieve lasting happiness.

Main Idea

Solve for Happy offers a systematic approach to understanding and achieving happiness, grounded in both science and personal experience. Gawdat posits that happiness is not a result of external circumstances but rather the outcome of how we perceive and respond to life’s events. Central to the book is the "happiness equation," which suggests that happiness is equal to or greater than your perception of life’s events minus your expectations of those events. By adjusting our perceptions and managing our expectations, Gawdat argues that we can control our happiness, regardless of external factors. The book delves into the illusions and cognitive biases that distort our perceptions, offering practical tools to help readers reclaim their innate state of happiness.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding Happiness
2. The Happiness Equation
3. Six Misconceptions That Prevent Happiness
4. Seven Blind Spots That Distort Happiness
5. Five Ultimate Truths for Lasting Happiness

Understanding Happiness

Gawdat begins by asserting that happiness is our default state. He observes that young children are naturally happy unless their basic needs are unmet, suggesting that unhappiness arises from disruptions to this natural state. Gawdat argues that modern society, with its material pursuits and unrealistic expectations, has disconnected us from our innate happiness. This disconnection, he claims, stems from a series of misconceptions and cognitive biases that distort our perception of reality.

Gawdat emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in reclaiming our natural state of happiness. He explains that by becoming aware of the factors that influence our emotions and thoughts, we can begin to take control of our mental state. This process involves recognizing the role of the brain in shaping our experiences and understanding that many of our thoughts and feelings are not reflective of reality but are instead products of evolutionary survival mechanisms. This awareness is the first step towards breaking free from the illusions that lead to unnecessary suffering and towards reclaiming our inherent happiness.

The Happiness Equation

The central concept of Gawdat's book is the happiness equation: