Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content
#291 - Where is Happiness?
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Transitioning from fluid to crystallized intelligence can benefit career progression.
- Detachment from rigid self-concepts and social comparisons reduces suffering.
- Buddhist teachings emphasize detachment from identity and social comparisons for fulfillment.
- True happiness involves managing feelings, desires, and transcending the self.
Deep dives
Differentiating Intelligence Types: Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence
Fluid intelligence, the ability to solve problems innovatively, peaks in the late thirties and early forties, then declines. Crystallized intelligence develops through knowledge and pattern recognition, peaking in the forties and continuing to improve. Transitioning from fluid to crystallized intelligence can benefit careers, such as from innovative academia to explanatory teaching.
Life's Cadence and Career Trajectories
Life circumstances, like delaying having families, can influence career trajectories. People often have infinite energy for more fluid intelligence-driven pursuits in their twenties and thirties, adjusting expectations as they age. By understanding the impermanence of goals and accomplishments, individuals transition to valuing more stable concepts.
Identity and Social Comparison: The Mana of Conceit
Healthy identity involves detachment from rigid self-concepts that breed suffering. Social comparisons, favorably or unfavorably, lead to dissatisfaction. The concept of mana, or conceit, highlights the dangers of comparing oneself to others, emphasizing the pitfalls of deriving well-being from superiority or inferiority.
Maintaining Equanimity and Perspective through Wisdom
Buddhist teachings emphasize the importance of detachment from identity and social comparisons. Wisdom lies in understanding the transient nature of achievements and the futility of ego-driven comparisons. Building a foundation of compassion, wisdom, and detachment can lead to a more fulfilling and harmonious life.
Navigating Career Transitions and Personal Growth
Understanding the shifts between fluid and crystallized intelligence helps in career transitions and personal growth. Balancing ambition, life circumstances, and the impermanence of achievements can lead to a more fulfilled and nuanced approach to life. Embracing wisdom, detachment, and humility can contribute to a richer and more sustainable path forward.
Importance of Self-Transcendence in Navigating Identity
Adopting a perspective of not being overly consumed by one's self-identity can lead to immense freedom according to the podcast. The speaker emphasizes wearing one's self-concept lightly to avoid hindering interactions with others. This concept suggests that true freedom comes from not letting one's self-concept dictate how to approach experiences and relationships.
Happiness and Mother Nature's Goals
The podcast delves into the idea that pursuing happiness might conflict with innate evolutionary drives for power, money, and pleasure. It highlights the tendency for individuals to compare themselves to others in the pursuit of these desires. The speaker argues that true happiness cannot solely stem from these external factors, emphasizing the importance of managing one's feelings and desires.
Exploration of Faith, Belief, and Self-Transcendence
The conversation between the speakers navigates through the concepts of faith, belief, and transcending the self. It touches upon the role of faith in living a transcendental life, involving family, friendship, and other-focused work. The discussion extends to the significance of questioning one's reality, beliefs, and the potential benefits of meditative prayer in exploring consciousness and self-transcendence.
Only the first 1 hour and 4 minutes of this episode are available on the paywalled podcast version (the BLACK podcast logo). If you’d like to hear the full 1 hour and 43 minutes of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast, you’ll need to SUBSCRIBE here. If you’re already subscribed and on the private RSS feed, the podcast logo should appear RED.
Sam Harris speaks with Arthur C. Brooks about what it takes to build a good life. They discuss the power of social comparison, the intelligence taboo, political dignity and ethical hierarchy, the Dalai Lama, the nature of love, fluid and crystallized intelligences, the strange case of Linus Pauling, the limits of identity, atheism and religious faith, fear of death, psychedelics, existentialism, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other topics.
Arthur C. Brooks is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. He is also a columnist at The Atlantic, where he writes the popular “How to Build a Life” column. Brooks is the author of 12 books, including the 2022 #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. He speaks all around the world about love and happiness, giving more than 150 speeches and lectures per year in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Brooks began his career as a classical musician, leaving college at 19, and performing with ensembles in the United States and Spain. In his late twenties, while still performing, he returned to school, earning a BA in economics through distance learning. At 31, he left music and earned an MPhil and PhD in public policy analysis, during which time he worked as a military analyst for the Rand Corporation. Brooks then spent the next 10 years as a university professor at Syracuse University, where he taught economics and nonprofit management. In 2009, Brooks became the president of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, one of the world’s most influential think tanks, which he led for a decade. During this period, he was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s “50 World’s Greatest Leaders” and was awarded seven honorary doctorates.
Originally from Seattle, Brooks currently lives outside Boston, with his wife Ester Munt-Brooks, who is a native of Barcelona. They have three adult children.
Website: arthurbrooks.com
Twitter: @arthurbrooks
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
