The Saad Truth About Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life

by Gad Saad, John McLain (Narrator)

Professor and “de facto global therapist” to an ever-growing audience of hundreds of thousands of people builds on national bestseller  The Parasitic Mind  to argue that happiness is not merely a changeable mood but a process toward which we can strive by following some basic steps that have been known to humans for millennia. Happiness is a fact It is a scientific fact, which means we can measure it, we can assess it, and we can devise strategies to make ourselves happy and fulfilled human beings. Or so says, Professor Gad Saad, author of the sensational national bestseller The Parasitic Mind and popular host of The Saad Truth podcast. Professor Saad roams through the scientific studies, the wisdom of ancient philosophy and religion, and his extraordinary personal experience as a refugee from war-torn Lebanon turned academic celebrity to provide one of the most provocative, helpful, and entertaining reads you are likely to encounter.

In The Saad Truth about Happiness you’ll learn the secrets to living the good life, Enlightening, bold, and good-humored, The Saad Truth about Happiness is as lively, stimulating, and captivating as its author, who has become a “de facto global therapist” to an ever-growing audience of hundreds of thousands of people. Read this book and you’ll see why so many seek his counsel.

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Audiobook, Health, Personal Development

8 pages, Audio CD

First published July 25, 2023

About the author

Dr. Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing, holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption, and advisory fellow at the Center for Inquiry. He was an Associate Editor of Evolutionary Psychology (2012-2015) and of Customer Needs and Solutions (2014- ). He has held Visiting Associate Professorships at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California-Irvine. Dr. Saad was inducted into the Who’s Who of Canadian Business in 2002. He was listed as one of the “hot” professors of Concordia University in both the 2001 and 2002 Maclean’s reports on Canadian universities. Dr. Saad received the JMSB Faculty’s Distinguished Teaching Award in June 2000. He is the recipient of the 2014 Darwinism Applied Award granted by the Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society and co-recipient of the 2015 President's Media Outreach Award-Research Communicator (International). His research and teaching interests include evolutionary psychology, consumer behavior, and psychology of decision making.

Professor Saad’s trade book, The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature (Prometheus Books), was released in June 2011, and has since been translated to Korean and Turkish. His 2007 book, The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (Lawrence Erlbaum) is the first academic book to demonstrate the Darwinian roots of a wide range of consumption phenomena. His edited book, Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences, was also released in 2011 (Springer), as was his special issue on the futures of evolutionary psychology published in Futures (Elsevier).

He has over 75 scientific publications covering a wide range of disciplines including in marketing, consumer behavior, psychology, economics, evolutionary theory, medicine, and bibliometrics. A sample of outlets wherein his publications have appeared include Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Consumer Psychology; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making; Evolution and Human Behavior; Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics; Marketing Theory; Journal of Social Psychology; Personality and Individual Differences; Managerial and Decision Economics; Journal of Bioeconomics; Applied Economics Letters; Journal of Business Research; Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences; Psychology & Marketing; Journal of Consumer Marketing; Medical Hypotheses; Scientometrics; and Futures. His work has been presented at 170 leading academic conferences, research centers, and universities around the world.

Dr. Saad has supervised or served on the committee of numerous Master’s and Doctoral students, as well as one post-doc. He has been awarded several research grants (both internal as well as governmental). Using his own grant money, he created an in-house behavioral marketing lab. He serves/has served on numerous editorial boards including Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Consumer Psychology; Psychology & Marketing; Journal of Business Research; Journal of Social Psychology; Evolutionary Psychology; Open Behavioral Science Journal; Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics; Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology/Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences; The Evolutionary Review; and Frontiers of Evolutionary Psychology; and is an associate member of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He has consulted for numerous firms, and his work has been featured in close to 500 media outlets including on television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. He has been designated Concordia's Newsmaker of the Week five years in a row (2011-2015).

Dr. Saad holds a PhD (Major: Marketing; Minors in Cognitive Studies and Statistics) and an MS from Cornell University, and an MBA (Specialization: Marketing; Mini-Thesis: Operations Research) and a BSc (Mathematics and Computer Science) both from McGill Uni

Reviews

[Alex Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not one for self help books but I thoroughly enjoy the wisdom of Gad Saad, his podcast is great and The Parasitic Mind is one of the best books out there on the current world so I had to give this one a shot too. Very statistical and evidence based and made me more optimistic- great lessons in this book for anyone

[Alcibiades · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book on happiness from somebody who constantly belittles people and unleashes his sarcasm toward those who disagree with him. Narcissism has its moments of happiness I guess.

[Andrés Astudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when you use science and ancient wisdom to write a book on happiness? Well, you end up reading this exact book. It is like reading Jonathan Haidt "The happiness hypothesis" while sipping some coffee doing research and data analysis, while thinking of amazing books, facts, and about your own life. Happiness is a human universal, and according to Steven Lesk "I would further assert that suicide can only be a facet of modern society that expects happiness. And on that and many other bases, I suggest that happiness is a modern invention.” Our brains are different from other species’ brains; we crave symbol, meaning and we have developed language, and we create music and art, and believe in gods, and we dream, and think about the future, we also cherish, remember, mentalize, overmentalize, fear death, fear isolation, and have unique psychopathologies. So, happiness is a human universal. There is no way to achieve it and that would be it; even if there was, we would feel sad anytime.

The book is not self-help crap. There are eight rules that are related to human evolution, facts, and some of them also carry some ancient wisdom, such as being stoic, and you know the drill.

Gad Saad is different from Peterson, different from Haidt, from Axel Kaiser, from many other thinkers, yet he speaks the truth. There is no way to find another mortal soul that shares unbiased wisdom like Dr. Saad. This guy was the first evolutionary psychologist I've ever read, and thanks to him, I've read stuff I've no idea existed as science (I live in Ecuador). Thanks to that, I’m able to understand human nature, from religion to porn consumption.

The book is awesome. It has more than 30 pages of notes and references, as well as personal anecdotes he shares with us. We need more books like this one. The most important fact is to share your life with who you really love, working in something that may be a part of you, and also having a dog as a friend. There's nothing toxic on anything he states, but, what is really toxic is the idea pathogens that he (and the rest of us) struggles with every single day of our lives: progressive ideology and its four pillars: intersectional feminism, queer theory, post-colonialism and critical race theory. If you didn't get a copy of "The parasitic mind", you are going want to read it. There's nothing rare on trying to pursue truth. Totally recommended.

[Mark A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

""

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strange ad hominem attacks undercut the underlying message of this book. Attacking people and ideologies without making a substantive argument was very off-putting. Made me question whether any advice was legitimate, or just ideologically driven. Did not finish.

[Louve de France · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting discussion about happiness, resilence, and what makes life worth when you look back. Definitly thought provoking!

[Zinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. I was sad that I finished it so fast. I really enjoyed carving time out of my hectic day to escape to Dr. Saad's insights. The book had a lot of interesting stories, fun science, and smart insights. I would recommend it to everyone looking for a light-hearted summer read especially during times when positive news is hard to come by. It does not read like a self-help book but rather a book that gives you clarity and some guidance. This book clearly is a change from his usual writing style. It looks like he was trying to reach a broader audience by making use of many personal stories to drive home his points. Dr. Saad is a great writer and I think he really hit a home run with this one.
Disclaimer: I also posted a similar review on Amazon

[Lee Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

While much of Professor Saad's advice is fairly intuitive, he delivers it with unexpected warmth and expected academic credibility with hints of his characteristic dry wit and sarcasm. It manages to rise above the typical pop psychology self-help book without ever becoming pedantic. I really enjoyed it, especially his chapters about the inverted U-curve and moderation, and his very poignant chapter on regret. There are some political asides that may alienate some casual readers who simply stopped by for the thesis, but there's still plenty to take away here if you're able to take advice from someone you don't completely agree with on every single thing (getting rarer and rarer these days). Very well paced and has just the right amount of depth without overstaying its welcome.

[Maurice Gatien · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many positive aspects to this book about cultivating a happy mindset. The one area that could be perhaps better addressed relates to the relentless competition for shelf-space within our minds from (a) negative people whether among friends or family - or newscasters and weather forecasters and (b) the avalanche of advertising messages (some very clever) that push products that will not improve people's lives or enhance their happiness. In other words, a person needs to filter. Developing that filter is an ongoing challenge. Still, all in all, a very worthy effort by the author to accentuate the positive in life.

[Charles Reed · Rating 1 out of 5]

0%

This is not book about happiness, this is a book about his political philosophies and whining about things that have happened to him and around him. Shame on the author shame on the publisher shame on anyone that reviewed this for letting this book go by as a book about happiness.

[Dan Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was more about the author's numerous endeavours and accomplishments than anything substantial or helpful.

[David Maywald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly wonderful, refreshing, and uplifting book, from the professor, blogger, YouTuber, and author of The Parasitic Mind.

“In addition to his job as the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau also acts as commissar of the Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE), where we are all obliged to repeat the party slogan, “Diversity is our strength” – no matter the social, political, and economic realities and problems around us… An allergen-free, sterile environment is actually detrimental to one’s health. In my book The Parasitic Mind, I discussed how this could be analogized to ideological echo chambers; intellectual environments that do not contain a diversity of opinions yield suboptimal critical thinking (as human minds expect to be challenged)… Successful, conservative black Americans like Candace Owens, Larry Elder, and Thomas Sowell are despised by leftist self-proclaimed leaders of the greater African American community precisely because these conservative stalwarts preach a message that rejects victimhood, that upholds the idea of personal agency, that recognizes the positives of living in a Western, democratic, capitalist land of opportunity like America. Happy people look to succeed in the business of life rather than flounder in a never-ending game of Victimology Poker.”

Dr Saad has argued for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour. He emphasises the inverted U-curve, which describes the importance of moderation (applied to empathy levels, risk-taking, optimism, and safety). He argues that complete empathy or zero risk are both far from optimal outcomes.

“of all the many groups that come after me for stating plain evolutionary science, the three worst and most unreasonable are militant feminists (who dislike what evolution says about sex), the Pronoun Taliban (whose entire ideology denies science), and the Tofu Brigade (who cannot accept that humans are omnivores).”

“Militant feminism (which, like socialism and communism, is something that I could call an “idea pathogen,” a bad idea that gets transmitted virally, largely by universities) is an ideology that has imparted immeasurable misery on millions of women, because it denies human nature and the reality of sexual differences. That men and women should be treated equally under law (equity feminism) is a veridical position. But militant feminism has pursued the idea of sexual equality to the point of lunacy, arguing that any differences in behaviors between the sexes are manifestations of an evil patriarchy that must be eradicated… Millions of women answered that call, and yet the longitudinal data tracking women’s happiness levels have shown that the trends are going in the wrong direction… It is incontestable that many postulates of militant feminism have been detrimental to women’s senses of happiness and well-being... Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to be happy and content because they are grounded in the eternal truths of humanity and human nature, have a much stronger sense of family and nurturing traditions, and have an appreciation for the order and ancient wisdom that has brought us Western democracy and capitalism… Those who have a burning desire to destroy the past – and the present – are unlikely to be happy. And their promise – or belief – that utopia is just around the corner is false and can never be fulfilled, which leads to further unhappiness.”

Saad was born in Beirut in 1964, to a family of Lebanese Jewish and Syrian Jewish ancestry. His family fled to Montreal in 1975, to escape the Lebanese Civil War.

“Beyond suicides, men are much more likely than women to be the victims of a murder, to be incarcerated, and to be homeless; one wonders why the patriarchy has yet to resolve those disparities in men’s favor. I am sure that the Wellesley College Women’s Studies department is assiduously working on explaining how these epidemiological facts make women the primary victims in all of these situations.”

This book is warm, funny, humane, playful, anti-woke, and full of humour. It portrays a generosity of spirit, and the outlines of a happy and contented life.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/bl...

[Mark Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently had the opportunity to read Gad Saad's latest offering, "The Saad Truth about happiness". Having thoroughly enjoyed "The Parasitic Mind", I had high expectations for this new release, which I was glad to see met.

Saad masterfully blends personal anecdotes with the latest in scientific research, drawing from a wide breadth of knowledge to provide quick, digestible tips on how to achieve and maintain happiness. The book doesn't disappoint, striking a great balance between engaging storytelling and relevant information.

However, there were a couple of aspects I found lacking. While the integration of scientific research is certainly a strong point, the book didn't delve as deeply into it as I would have liked. As we all know, headlines often oversimplify the full extent of scientific findings, sometimes obscuring the significance of the effects and the certainty of their validity. I felt the book could have offered a more comprehensive exploration of these details.

Moreover, Saad's focus on his personal experiences, though adding a touch of relatability, occasionally made the book feel a bit amateurish. The content was strikingly similar to his podcast interview, which I was already familiar with. I turned to this book in anticipation of fresh insights. However, it predominantly echoed the same talking points from hearing him on podcasts, without offering anything notably new, which was a bit of a letdown.

Despite these minor drawbacks, "The Saad Truth about happiness" still makes for an enlightening read, especially for those new to Saad's work or anyone interested in practical advice on happiness.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gad Saad is in my opinion one of the best academics of our time. He’s a level head in an world turned upside down. I don’t often go for a self help type of book. The pursuit is antithetical to my self reliant nature. Having made the exception for one of my favorite nonfictionalists: the book is reasonable. Gad distilled the wisdom of the modern era into a palpable 180 or so pages. Being that I’m 35 years old and have taken a passive interest in philosophy and history my whole life the information was not new to me. The framework for which he suggests might elicit happiness is not novel by any stretch. So in short I breezed through the book, like often with Saad’s words, just sort of reaffirming my own beliefs which tended to be a bore for me (not much to mull over). I would recommend this book to any 16-24 year old. It is actually a prescription for living a happy life that would fit you or you or you in most cases (not gospel; just a compilation of commonalities).

[Julio Astudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when you use science and ancient wisdom to write a book on happiness? Well, you end up reading this exact book. It is like reading Jonathan Haidt "The happiness hypothesis" while sipping some coffee doing research and data analysis, while thinking of amazing books, facts, and about your own life. Happiness is a human universal, and according to Steven Lesk "I would further assert that suicide can only be a facet of modern society that expects happiness. And on that and many other bases, I suggest that happiness is a modern invention.” Our brains are different from other species’ brains; we crave symbol, meaning and we have developed language, and we create music and art, and believe in gods, and we dream, and think about the future, we also cherish, remember, mentalize, overmentalize, fear death, fear isolation, and have unique psychopathologies. So, happiness is a human universal. There is no way to achieve it and that would be it; even if there was, we would feel sad anytime.

The book is not self-help crap. There are eight rules that are related to human evolution, facts, and some of them also carry some ancient wisdom, such as being stoic, and you know the drill.

Gad Saad is different from Peterson, different from Haidt, from Axel Kaiser, from many other thinkers, yet he speaks the truth. There is no way to find another mortal soul that shares unbiased wisdom like Dr. Saad. This guy was the first evolutionary psychologist I've ever read, and thanks to him, I've read stuff I've no idea existed as science (I live in Ecuador). Thanks to that, I’m able to understand human nature, from religion to porn consumption.

The book is awesome. It has more than 30 pages of notes and references, as well as personal anecdotes he shares with us. We need more books like this one. The most important fact is to share your life with who you really love, working in something that may be a part of you, and also having a dog as a friend. There's nothing toxic on anything he states, but, what is really toxic is the idea pathogens that he (and the rest of us) struggles with every single day of our lives: progressive ideology and its four pillars: intersectional feminism, queer theory, post-colonialism and critical race theory. If you didn't get a copy of "The parasitic mind", you are going want to read it. There's nothing rare on trying to pursue truth. Totally recommended.

[Maher Razouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

السعادة كإكسير للصحة
.
.
عندما ندرس العلاقة بين السعادة والصحة ، يمكننا رؤية كل من المتغيرات السابقة وتأثيرات النتائج. ليس من المستغرب أن نجد أن الصحة السيئة (كمتغير سابق) يمكن أن يكون لها تأثير سلبي على سعادة المرء. لكن من المثير للاهتمام ملاحظة أن السعادة يمكن أن تؤدي إلى نتائج صحية أفضل.

كيف تعمل السعادة على تحسين الصحة؟

أولاً ، ثبت أن الأشخاص السعداء هم أكثر عرضة لممارسة الرياضة ، وتناول نظام غذائي صحي ، والانخراط في سلوكيات أخرى تعزز الصحة.

ثانيًا ، يُظهر الأشخاص الأكثر سعادة مجموعة واسعة من المؤشرات الصحية الجيدة ، بدءًا من انخفاض مستويات الكورتيزول وانخفاض الالتهاب إلى خفض ضغط الدم.

الصحة النفسية هي فائدة أخرى للسعادة. من غير المرجح أن يقول الأشخاص السعداء : "أنا بحاجة إلى اتخاذ أفضل قرار ممكن" (القلق بشأن الحصول على أقصى فائدة) وعلى الأرجح سيقولون : "سأبحث عن بديل ناجح يكون جيدًا بما فيه الكفاية" (الشعور بالرضا عن نتيجة مقبولة).

الأشخاص السعداء هم أيضًا أقل عرضة للوقوع فريسة لتأثير المقارنات الاجتماعية ؛ رفاههم أقل اعتمادًا على نجاحات الآخرين وإخفاقاتهم. يميل الأشخاص السعداء في حياتهم إلى إيجاد الجانب المشرق في كل ما يحدث.

هذه سمة ، أو عقلية ، يمكن رعايتها أو تدريبها ، كما هو الحال في العلاج السلوكي المعرفي ؛ والذي يمكن أن ينجح بشكل مستقل عن الوراثة (الصفات الجينية).
.
Gad Saad
The Saad Truth about Happiness
Translated By #Maher_Razouk

[Harshil Mehta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humans have a tendency to find happiness in life. In fact, it is also one of the most achievable qualities in life. It is directly related to the satisfaction in one's life. But humans often forget which things increase or decrease their happiness.

Gad Saad explores the factors responsible for happiness in details in this book. Two major factors responsible for happiness are: Your spouse and your work/job. One should have a spouse to reduce the perennial conflict and quarrels, to support in life's struggles, and to make each others' company desirable. Also, one should do work that interests him and motivates to push harder without giving stress and tension that snatch away happiness from life.

In other chapters, Saad also touches upon the other secrets like the importance of moderation, how resilience is a key to happiness, removal of regrets etc. The book is written in an engaging style with personal anecdotes and researches in between. However, with The Parasitic Mind, Saad had set a different precedent in my mind which this book, sadly, does not meet.

[Olga Podobed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this was so disappointing. I really liked Dr.Saad from his interviews on different podcasts and I've heard a lot of them. In interviews he seems to be funny, light hearted and self deprecating. In general I agree with him, and more so, this book is about common sense knowledge or wisdoms? like stuff a wise grandma will tell you. But man, was this book extremely boring and stretched out, and even worse were all the examples from the authors life, just terrible. He comes across as someone so full of himself, self admiring and very judgmental towards others. Sometimes it's just ridiculous, like "look at my stupid evil narrow minded cousin talking smack about me"... wait what?
So, it's not worth reading, just skip, read the epigraphs and the conclusion.

[Ozan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yazara haksızlık yapmış olacağımı düşündüğüm için kitabı okurken bahsetmeyi planladığım şeylerin çoğundan bahsetmeyeceğim.

Biz farklıyız, hem de çok! Bir yerden başlamak gerekirse yazarın “Highly celebrated quack” diye andığı Carl Gustav Jung’un deyişiyle o bir dışadönük, bense bir içedönüğüm.

Bir insan utanıp sıkılmadan nasıl bu kadar kendiyle övünebiliyor, kitap boyunca ara sıra bunu düşündüm. Ve fark ettim ki Nietzsche’yi saymazsak kendiyle bu kadar övünen başka bir yazarı okumadım. Büyük ihtimalle Nietzsche bu işi şiirsel bir şekilde yaptığı için bana batmamıştı. Bu adam dümdüz kendini övdüğü için biraz rahatsızlık verdi.

Yine de mutlu bir hayat için bilimsel verilerle desteklemeye çalışarak verdiği tavsiyeler (özgün olmasa da) fena değildi.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I approached The Truth About Happiness with high expectations, hoping for a thoughtful exploration of what it truly means to be happy. Unfortunately, I found the book to be more ideological than scientific in its approach to finding happiness. While the author occasionally references psychological concepts, the narrative often feels more like a personal manifesto than a well-rounded, evidence-based discussion.

What stood out even more, however, was the thinly veiled self-promotion woven throughout the book. The frequent references to the author’s other works and his “popular” YouTube channel detracted from the core message. It often felt like a marketing pitch rather than an insightful guide.

[Matthew Mechtly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the empirical evidence for what behaviors are linked happiness and presents entertaining anecdotes to drive home the point.

However, Saad gets needlessly political at times to the point where it feels patronizing. Yes, I understand that in his milieu--Quebec and higher education--most of what he feels is contrary to "leading the good life" are excesses that come from the political left. Still, I think he alienates much of what could be his reader base by descending into partisanship for no reason other than he couldn't think of a better example for whatever point he was trying to make.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as somewhat of a Gad fan who saw it coming, the combative tone in many parts of the book felt off, especially in a book about happiness. Gad seems to revel in taking the opportunity of any audience (in this case the reader) to air his grievances, often political but sometimes even personal. To his credit these tirades were often tied back into the thesis of the broader passage or chapter.

That said, I enjoyed how the book stepped through the project of happiness, and held no punches when it came to what is ultimately a lofty topic. I do wish the book actually took more of a prescriptive, suggestive tone rather than merely describing what Gad found worked for him.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many interesting points made in the book which were summarized at the end: find a good spouse, work in the right profession, seek moderation, have a playful mindset, include variety in your life, have meaningful goals, be resilient not fragile when dealing with failure, minimize regret by living an authentic life. There were many examples from his own life along with research to back up his points, however not everyone is lucky to have/ obtains what he recommends due to life circumstance and / or due to a person's character.

[Lawrence Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gad is a brilliant and funny man, and this book brings out both in him. He digs at certain things he finds ridiculous, but only because he knows through his studies, work, and experiences through life, what not only the keys to happiness are, but the things that are but a keyless door in the search of a life of happiness and fulfillment. The love story between Gad and his wife is an inspiring example of the happiness I seek in my own life. Thank you for your wisdom and work to help us all find better relationships with ourselves and others.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is rife with hypocrisy. Gad openly states multiple times he is a Lebanese Jew however contradicts on multiple occasions that he does not believe in a higher power. I’m sorry, how are you so called “Jewish” pick a side of the fence and stay there. Additionally, there are a lot of political views and nasty comments/opinions about some “occasional Cortez” (AOC). Name dropping Joe Rogan Podcast multiple times for some sort of clout…This book is best summarised with the line by Elle Woods in Legally Blonde “Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t”.

[Paul Linenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sorry that I have to give this book three stars, because I like Gad and what he stands for based on interviews I've watched and his comments in the book. My criticism is that Gad spends too much time patting himself on the back for some (admittedly impressive) achievements in his life. I felt like there were too many times that he ventured off of the topic to go into unnecessary detail about his personal accomplishments. Those digressions were distracting and ultimately detracted from what was otherwise very good content.

[Joseph Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some interesting, some trite reviews of scientific papers and history regarding happiness, interspersed with weird and deranged far-right lunacy. After the first lie I heard about tax rates, I figured I'd still see if it was worth it. After weird ramblings against AOC and Bernie, I started to have increasing doubts. Then later I just gave up.

You can find better correct advice on happiness elsewhere, and not be subject to increasing nonsense. Boiling frog.
Apparently, he is a frequent guest on Joe Rogan, which tracks.

[I AM A READER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall interesting read, I must say.

I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning, but as the author starts writing long passages on his own political, socio-economical, geopolitical opinions in this otherwise rather *self-helpy* book, it can get really distracting... (and sometimes could feel a bit condescending from a certain standpoint). However, overall, the premise of the book is great, and I think I learned some interesting lessons about the path to happiness through this read.

[Joan Fung-Tomc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Saad is a reflective, well-rounded academic, empathetic individual. While many of his good-life guide (finding the right spouse; right profession; life in moderation; be playful; have diverse interests; live a meaningful life; not to be put down by failure; live authentically), perhaps the one I had to stop to think about was the "moderation" approach - the inverted U-curve. Overall, a thoughtful book and easy to read.

[Sasa Soso · Rating 2 out of 5]

By focusing on the things in life that you can control, you can create the conditions for the kind of meaningful and fulfilling life that will produce a happy outcome . These conditions include having the right job and romantic partner; seeking moderation, variety, and play in life; being resilient in the face of failure; and minimizing future regrets.