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Zusammenfassung von The Algebra of Happiness

Name: The Algebra of Happiness
Rating: 4 (253 reviews)
Author: Scott Galloway

Scott Galloway

Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning

4 (253 Bewertungen)

23 Min.

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In 'The Algebra of Happiness' by Scott Galloway, we learn that happiness is a skill that can be developed with intention and practice. The book offers practical tips and personal stories to help us lead more fulfilling lives.

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The Algebra of Happiness
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Kernaussage 1 von 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how to balance the variables of happiness.

The algebra of happiness – that sounds pretty intriguing, but what does it actually mean?

Well, think back to your school days. When you first started studying algebra in your math classes, you were probably confronted by equations involving letters, like X + Y = 7. Those letters are called variables, which are symbols that stand for unknown quantities. In the algebra of mathematics, your task is to solve for those unknowns, the ones that add up to a given number like 7, for instance.

Similarly, the algebra of happiness is about figuring out the variables that add up to a happy life – that is, a life filled with a sense of meaning, love and success. But there’s one key difference, and it’s that this is not just some school lesson carried out on a worksheet; it’s the fundamental challenge of human existence, played out on the world stage. And what’s at stake isn’t just a grade, it’s the value, impact and enjoyment of your time here on Earth.

In these blinks, you’ll learn about

the inevitable trade-offs you’ll have to make between your current and future happiness;
the underappreciated traits that make for a good employee and entrepreneur; and
the true meaning of the word “rich.”

There’s an inevitable trade-off to be made between the work-life balances of your young adulthood and later adulthood.

Let’s really go back to our school days and start off with a pop quiz. If X + Y = 7, what is the value of X?

Well, that depends on the value of Y. You know that the sum equals 7 so, the higher Y is, the lower X will be, and vice-versa. That’s the thing with algebra – when we’re doing it we’re not just concerned with the individual variables themselves; we’re also interested in the relationships between them. In this case, X and Y have an inverse relationship to each other.

A similar principle applies to the algebra of happiness. Here’s another inverse relationship: let X be your work-life balance in young adulthood, while Y represents the same balance later in your life. Here, too, the more you have of the one, the less you’ll have of the other, and vice-versa.

Why’s that? Well, if you want to achieve professional success and financial security, you’re going to have to outcompete the numerous other young adults also striving for it. Otherwise, they’ll leave you in the dust and you’ll probably never catch up.

But that means devoting more time and energy to your career than to other areas of your life, which will likely suffer as a result. For example, the author’s early success as an investment banker and entrepreneur came at a steep cost, with hair loss, a divorce and a sense that he’d lost his entire twenties.

The point isn’t that you have to sacrifice your young adulthood for the sake of your later years. It’s simply that you must recognize the trade-off to be made between the two – and it’s up to you to decide whether, and how much, you want to trade one for the other.

For example, you can live a relaxed, well-balanced lifestyle in your early adulthood that could make you much happier in the present moment than your career-driven peers’ 80-hour work weeks. But if you choose to take this path, you should do so with the recognition that it could lead to a more precarious financial position later in life. That, in turn, will lead to a more stressful, unbalanced life than the one that those same peers will enjoy in their golden years, as they ease back on work and eventually retire.

That being said, they’ll also have lost out on a lot of happiness between now and then. Again, there’s always a trade-off, but the choice is yours – just know what you’re trading and choosing!

Sacrificing your personal life for your professional success can come at a significant cost.

Before you decide to sacrifice your personal life on the altar of professional success, you might want to pause and consider what you’re sacrificing – above all, your relationships with your friends and family. If you’re working 80-hour weeks, you’re not going to have much time and energy left for those relationships and they’re going to deteriorate as a result.

But can’t you just put them on the back burner for now and get back to them later in life, after retirement? Well, it’s not so simple because, in the algebra of happiness, the logic of sacrifice applies to relationships just as much as it does to success. And as with success, the more or less time and energy you invest in your friends and family now, the more or less you’ll get back from them later in life.

Enjoyable activities, experiences and quality time spent with friends and family are the keys to happiness.

It’s often said that money can’t buy happiness and that the best things in life are free. Now, both of these aphorisms are a bit overstated. Money, to the extent that it can lift us out of the instability, insecurity and material insufficiencies that come with poverty or a precarious middle-class income, can definitely increase our happiness. And many worthwhile experiences and hobbies require paying up-front investment costs, such as a plane ticket for an overseas vacation or an instrument you use to play music.

But those caveats aside, the aphorisms have a lot of truth to them. And, even in both of the exceptions just mentioned, money is simply a means to an end, not an end in itself. Let’s go back to experiences and hobbies. While money enables you to access or procure the equipment needed to enjoy these activities, it’s not obtaining the access or equipment that make you happy – it’s actually using them to do those activities.

To achieve financial security, combine a good degree with a good location and be willing to work in unromantic fields.

Imagine you have the financial security of spending the golden years of your life doing the things you enjoy with the people you love the most. Sounds great, but are you willing to put your nose to the proverbial grindstone to make it a reality? Can you sacrifice aspects of your young adulthood for the sake of your happiness later in life?

We’re going to assume the answer is a definite yes, but, even if that’s not the case, you’ll still get a better idea of what’s involved in taking this difficult-but-rewarding path in life.

Consider the traits of a successful employee and those of an entrepreneur to decide which path you should take.

In contemporary culture, entrepreneurs are often portrayed as people who possess a unique set of virtues, like vision, tenacity and courage. Less attention is paid to the traits they don’t possess, namely, the traits of a good employee. There are three of these.

The first trait is dependability. If you want to keep your job, let alone get promoted, you’re going to have to do things like show up to work on time and pay attention at meetings, despite all of the terrible traffic and irrelevant conversations that get in the way.

Achieving financial security involves redefining the meaning of the word “rich” and acting accordingly.

Let’s say you’ve earned an in-demand degree, moved to a thriving supercity and sorted out the question of whether you should be an employee or an entrepreneur. Now what? How else can you ensure you achieve financial stability for the later years of your life?

The short answer is: to get rich. But to do that, you need to know what it really means to be “rich.” It’s not just having a lot of money. It’s having a comparatively high passive income and low expenditure.

To enjoy your financial security, you’ll eventually have to shift away from focusing on your professional life.

Imagine you’re entering your golden years and you’ve played all of your cards right. You moved to a supercity. You worked your butt off for a company that builds waste treatment facilities across the great land in which you live. It’s not exactly the career you were dreaming of as a child, but it’s made you a lot of money – and you’ve invested that money wisely. Now you're rich, in the true meaning of the word. Your work has paid off.

But here’s the thing: you won’t enjoy that payoff unless you let yourself! Remember, the point isn’t just to make lots of money; it’s to make lots of money so that you can stop having to make lots of money! That way, you can work less and spend more time doing the things you love with your friends and family. This is the final objective.

To achieve a happy family life, find a compatible partner – and don’t lose them by keeping score.

In the preceding blinks, we’ve assumed that your overarching objective is to have enough financial security to enjoy your golden years with your loved ones – particularly the family you create with a partner. Of course, that’s assuming you have such a family and partner in the first place. In this final blink, we’ll take a look at how to find and maintain a relationship with a good life partner, that is, a person with whom you can form a true partnership when it comes to parenting.

To begin with, you need to know what you should be looking for in such a partner. Now, there are some one-size-fits-all requirements. For example, your partner should be an emotionally stable person who likes you for who you are. After all, it’s pretty unpleasant to share your life and kids with someone who’s emotionally unstable and hates you.

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Worum geht es in The Algebra of Happiness?

The Algebra of Happiness (2019) lays out some of the most important variables involved in living a life full of meaning, love and success. It then provides a wide range of practical tips and principles on how to navigate the tensions and trade-offs involved in balancing these variables against one another.

Wer The Algebra of Happiness lesen sollte

Young adults thinking ahead about their middle age and retirement
Success-minded individuals weighing up entrepreneurship or pursuing a traditional career
Family-oriented people trying to navigate the challenges of finding a work-life balance

Über den Autor

Scott Galloway is a professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (2017). He is also a successful entrepreneur and has founded nine companies, including the business intelligence firm L2 Inc, consulting firm Prophet and e-commerce website Red Envelope.

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