Download or read book The Happiness Industry written by William Davies and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Deeply researched and pithily argued.” —New York Magazine “A brilliant, and sometimes eerie, dissection” of ‘the science of happiness’ and the modern-day commercialization of our most private emotions (Vice) Why are we so obsessed with measuring happiness? In winter 2014, a Tibetan monk lectured the world leaders gathered at Davos on the importance of Happiness. The recent DSM-5, the manual of all diagnosable mental illnesses, for the first time included shyness and grief as treatable diseases. Happiness has become the biggest idea of our age, a new religion dedicated to well-being. Here, political economist William Davies shows how this philosophy, first pronounced by Jeremy Bentham in the 1780s, has dominated the political debates that have delivered neoliberalism. From a history of business strategies of how to get the best out of employees, to the increased level of surveillance measuring every aspect of our lives; from why experts prefer to measure the chemical in the brain than ask you how you are feeling, to why Freakonomics tells us less about the way people behave than expected, The Happiness Industry is an essential guide to the marketization of modern life. Davies shows that the science of happiness is less a science than an extension of hyper-capitalism.
Download or read book The Industry of Human Happiness written by James Hall and published by Eye & Lightning Books. This book was released on 2018-05-24 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale of love, murder and obsession in the early days of recorded sound. Set in the murky backstage world of late Victorian theatreland, The Industry of Human Happiness is about the obsessive characters who dreamed of bringing recorded music to the masses. Max and his younger cousin Rusty have a vision of launching the gramophone industry from a Covent Garden basement. But a renowned opera singer is brutally murdered in his hotel bed and they are thrust into the underworld of opium dens, brothels and extortion. Ghosts from the past and a contested inheritance turn the cousins against each other, and they go head-to-head to launch rival talking machines. With Max's sweetheart, the ambitious singer Delilah Green, caught in the middle, the pair battle rival manufacturers, London theatre owners and, ultimately, each other, for their very futures. This is a story of obsession, the pursuit of love and the enduring magic of music.
Download or read book Manufacturing Happy Citizens written by Edgar Cabanas and published by Polity. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The imperative of happiness dictates the conduct and direction of our lives. There is no escape from the tyranny of positivity. But is happiness the supreme good that all of us should pursue? So says a new breed of so-called happiness experts, with positive psychologists, happiness economists and self-development gurus at the forefront. With the support of influential institutions and multinational corporations, these self-proclaimed experts now tell us what governmental policies to apply, what educational interventions to make and what changes we must undertake in order to lead more successful, more meaningful and healthier lives. With a healthy scepticism, this book documents the powerful social impact of the science and industry of happiness, arguing that the neoliberal alliance between psychologists, economists and self-development gurus has given rise to a new and oppressive form of government and control in which happiness has been woven into the very fabric of power.
Download or read book The Happy Human written by Gopi Kallayil and published by Hay House. This book was released on 2018 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gopi Kallayil, author of The Internet to the Inner-net and one of Google's best and brightest, uses stories from his high-tech work life and his personal life to explore what it means to be truly happy--and what makes us truly human. Happiness is a multimillion-dollar industry, catering to our deep desire to live a joyful life and to a belief that, as human beings, we deserve to be happy. Gopi Kallayil believes in reversing that equation. He holds that what we truly deserve is to be human, and that the key to happiness lies in being 100 percent who we are, reveling in our authentic selves, even if--maybe especially if--that means falling on our faces. Which Gopi has done. Many times. But he's also had spectacular success. This book explores the qualities that make us human and have helped to make Gopi successful and happy in both his personal life and his professional career. Told with Gopi's candor and humor, his deep compassion and his love of the absurd, The Happy Human spans the period from his first job as a software programmer in South China to his current position as an executive at Google in Silicon Valley. Each chapter captures an event in Gopi's life where he dug deep and found the means to express himself from a place of radical confidence: Singing live at Burning Man, even though he sings off-key and was terrified. Participating in a triathlon, with an open-water swim, when he had only swum in a pool. (Lifeguards pulled him into their boat to save him.) Speaking at Toastmasters International and being willing to be awful--which he admittedly was--before finally, years later, becoming one of their top speakers. He also weaves in accounts of others who have dreamed big and acted on their dreams. Gopi's stories and practices help us find happiness by embracing not only our own selves but the entire human experience, inspiring us to expect miracles daily, to use every fall as a chance to bounce, to go for what we want on every front, to live our lives full-out.
Download or read book Blown to Bits written by Harold Abelson and published by Addison-Wesley Professional. This book was released on 2008 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Blown to Bits' is about how the digital explosion is changing everything. The text explains the technology, why it creates so many surprises and why things often don't work the way we expect them to. It is also about things the information explosion is destroying: old assumptions about who is really in control of our lives.
Download or read book How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life written by Russ Roberts and published by Portfolio. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How the insights of an 18th century economist can help us live better in the 21st century. Adam Smith became famous for The Wealth of Nations, but the Scottish economist also cared deeply about our moral choices and behavior--the subjects of his other brilliant book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). Now, economist Russ Roberts shows why Smith's neglected work might be the greatest self-help book you've never read. Roberts explores Smith's unique and fascinating approach to fundamental questions such as: - What is the deepest source of human satisfaction? - Why do we sometimes swing between selfishness and altruism? - What's the connection between morality and happiness? Drawing on current events, literature, history, and pop culture, Roberts offers an accessible and thought-provoking view of human behavior through the lenses of behavioral economics and philosophy"--
Download or read book The Happiness Fantasy written by Carl Cederström and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-10-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this devastatingly witty new book, Carl Cederström traces our present-day conception of happiness from its roots in early-twentieth-century European psychiatry, to the Beat generation, to Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. He argues that happiness is now defined by a desire to be "authentic", to experience physical pleasure, and to cultivate a quirky individuality. But over the last fifty years, these once-revolutionary ideas have been co-opted by corporations and advertisers, pushing us to live lives that are increasingly unfulfilling, insecure and narcissistic. In an age of increasing austerity and social division, Cederström argues that a radical new dream of happiness is gathering pace. There is a vision of the good life which promotes deeper engagement with the world and our place within it, over the individualism and hedonism of previous generations. Guided by this more egalitarian worldview, we can reinvent ourselves and our societies.
Download or read book Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature written by Chet Shupe and published by Bookbaby. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shupe's book goes beyond self-help. It reveals how our emotional connections to one another have been severed, by our dependence on legal systems. Shupe reminds us that humans once lived in a state of contentment, because they depended on each other to survive. But our current dependence on legal systems has deprived us of our greatest need--to love and to be loved by our fellow man. Shupe's book informs us of something modern people fail to grasp: We humans do have an inborn wisdom, endowed by evolution. It is essential to our happiness, and to the wellbeing of life, that we be true to this inborn map of life. Humans created civilization, because we thought life would be better if everyone complied with sovereign laws. In terms of material benefits, civilization has succeeded. But depending on laws--not emotional intelligence--to maintain order, has so socially isolated us that reality, as we experience it, is a spiritual wasteland. Unable to emotionally engage in our surroundings, we have no access to the wisdom of human nature, which reveals itself exclusively through feelings in response to one's immediate circumstances. The result of this spiritual alienation is pain. To manage it, we modern humans space ourselves out on beliefs, ideologies, drugs, hope, dreams--and even the promise of science. When those fail to quell the pain, people turn to suicide--the only option left. Shupe's answer is to return to the natural spiritual homes in which Homo sapiens once thrived. But people cannot establish a spiritual home, merely by design or intent. Spiritual homes will eventually form naturally: When enough people become disillusioned with the promises of modern life, they will acquire a new perspective on what life is about. Among spiritually awakened people, a real home is organic. Indeed, for humans to experience a natural sense of emotional and material comfort, a spiritual home--one that is maintained by our emotional intelligence--is the only option that exists.
Download or read book 10 Human written by Alanna Collen and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, evolutionary biologist and science writer Alanna Collen’s stunning alarm call concerning the widely-ignored role our gut microbes play in our health and well-being. “Fascinating…. Everything you wanted to know about microbes but were afraid to ask.”— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight of five African elephants in microbes. You are not an individual but a colony. Until recently, we had thought our microbes hardly mattered, but science is revealing a different story, one in which microbes run our bodies and becoming a healthy human is impossible without them. In this riveting, shocking, and beautifully written book, biologist Alanna Collen draws on the latest scientific research to show how our personal colony of microbes influences our weight, our immune system, our mental health, and even our choice of partner. She argues that so many of our modern diseases—obesity, autism, mental illness, digestive disorders, allergies, autoimmunity afflictions, and even cancer—have their root in our failure to cherish our most fundamental and enduring relationship: that with our personal colony of microbes. The good news is that unlike our human cells, we can change our microbes for the better. Collen’s book is a revelatory and indispensable guide. Life—and your body—will never seem the same again.
Download or read book The Art of Happiness at Work written by Dalai Lama and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-09-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the authors who brought you the million-copy bestseller The Art of Happiness comes an exploration of job, career, and finding the ultimate happiness at work. Over the past several years, Howard Cutler has continued his conversations with the Dalai Lama, asking him the questions we all want answered about how to find happiness in the place we spend most of our time. Work-whether it's in the home or at an office-is what mostly runs our lives. We depend on it to eat, to clothe and shelter ourselves, and to take care of our families. Beginning with a direct correlation between productivity and happiness, Dr. Cutler questions His Holiness about the nature of work. In psychiatry and according to the Dalai Lama, our motivation for working determines our level of satisfaction. The book explores three levels of focus: survival, career, and calling. Once again, Cutler walks us through the Dalai Lama's reasoning so that we know how to apply the wisdom to daily life. This practical application of Buddhist ideas is an invaluable source of strength and peace for anyone who earns a living.
Download or read book Stumbling on Happiness written by Daniel Gilbert and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it. Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely turns out as we had expected. Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward. Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert shakes, cajoles, persuades, tricks and jokes us into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Among the unexpected questions he poses: Why are conjoined twins no less happy than the general population? When you go out to eat, is it better to order your favourite dish every time, or to try something new? If Ingrid Bergman hadn’t gotten on the plane at the end of Casablanca, would she and Bogey have been better off? Smart, witty, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny, Stumbling on Happiness brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there.
Download or read book Human Happiness written by Blaise Pascal and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-08-07 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Created by the seventeenth-century philosopher and mathematician Pascal, the essays contained in Human Happiness are a curiously optimistic look at whether humans can ever find satisfaction and real joy in life – or whether a belief in God is a wise gamble at best. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Download or read book America the Anxious written by Ruth Whippman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author embarks on a pilgrimage to investigate how the national obessession with happiness infiltrates all areas of life, from religion to parenting, from the workplace to academia. She attends a Landmark Forum self-help course, visits Zappos headquarters in Las Vegas (a "happiness city"), looks into the academic "positive psychology movement" and spends time in Utah with Mormons, officially America's happiest people.
Download or read book The Directions to Happiness written by Bruce Northam and published by . This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A JOURNEY THROUGH 135 COUNTRIES REVEALS WISDOM FROM UNLIKELY SAGESIn THE DIRECTIONS TO HAPPINESS, Bruce Thoreau Northam shares the infinite goodwill of strangers through engaging tales from his travels to 135 countries. He has spent decades navigating the globe in a continuing search for words to live by-and live for-in his quest for enlightenment.Bruce Northam is the award-winning journalist and author of Globetrotter Dogma, In Search of Adventure, and The Frugal Globetrotter. He also created "American Detour," a show revealing the travel writer's journey. His keynote speech, Directions to Your Destination, reveals the many shades of the travel industry and how to entice travelers. Northam's other live presentation, Street Anthropology, is an ode to freestyle wandering. Visit AmericanDetour.com.
Download or read book The Busy Woman s Guide to High Energy Happiness written by Louise Thompson and published by Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you find yourself saying 'I am so tired' all the time? Does life feel like a grind some days? Do you want to have a fuller, happier, more vital life? If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, this book is for you. In this hands-on-guide, New Zealand life coach Louise Thompson shares her secrets for achieving wellness, balance and fulfilment in this fast-paced world. A former corporate executive, Louise was once bedridden with extreme fatigue – but now she has energy to burn! She has written this book so that you, too, can be buzzing with energy and create a life you love. With Louise's practical tips, exercises, worksheets and with real-life stories from clients, you'll be inspired to take control of your life and lead a more energetic and rewarding existence. You can have the life you want. This book gives you the tools you need to make positive changes . . . today! Also available as an eBook with audio
Download or read book Can We Be Happier written by Richard Layard and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Happiness and co-editor of the annual World Happiness Report Most people now realize that economic growth, however desirable, will not solve all our problems. Instead, we need a philosophy and a science which encompasses a much fuller range of human need and experience. This book argues that the goal for a society must be the greatest possible all-round happiness, and shows how each of us can become more effective creators of happiness, both as citizens and in our own organizations. Written with Richard Layard's characteristic clarity, it provides hard evidence that increasing happiness is the right aim, and that it can be achieved. Its language is simple, its evidence impressive, its effect inspiring. 'In this book 'Can We Be Happier?' which is part of Richard Layard's excellent, ongoing exploration of what happiness is and how it can be achieved, he provides evidence that if you have peace of mind and are full of joy, your health will be good, your family will be happy and that happiness will affect the atmosphere of the community in which you live.' The Dalai Lama
Download or read book Essays on Human Happiness written by Henry Duhring and published by . This book was released on 1848 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
