Title: The Happiness AdvantageAuthor: Shawn AchorPages: 210 hardcoverSummary: The idea of this book is that a lot of psychology research over the past few decades has shown that people are much more productive, creative and ultimately successful in all aspects of life if they are happy. This covers happiness in terms of deep satisfaction with the direction of your life and shallower happiness of feeling appreciated and cared about by the people around you, etc. The book presents the evidence throughout with actual studies that have shown these results and talks about studies that have shown how people can increase their happiness in their life with deliberate steps, such as purposefully noticing the nice things that happen during the day and purposefully giving other people compliments. It tends towards advice to managers about how to increase their employees productivity, but as someone who isn’t a manager currently, it was still helpful.I’m generally a happy person and have found evidence in my own life that I am much more productive when I maintain that happiness, but it was nice to get reassurance that I’m not crazy and advice that I will keep in the back of my mind for when times are tough (ie in grad school) of how to continue to maintain a happier mindset.This book is definitely pop science and some of his explanations of scientific studies gave this science major the heeby jeebies, but for the most part it looks like good science and good advice for people who really want to reach that upper crust of performance in their lives but don’t know what they are doing wrong.More reviews at http://www.onstarshipsanddragonwings.com/
