The Art of the Good Life

52 Surprising Shortcuts to Happiness, Wealth, and Success

By: Rolf Dobelli

Narrated by: Keith Wickham

From the bestselling author of The Art of Thinking Clearly, an insightful book that shares tips for making the very best of life–and maybe finding happiness along the way.

A simple path to happiness doesn't exist. Rolf Dobelli, businessman and founder of the TED-style conference World Minds, has synthesized the leading thinkers and the latest science in happiness to find the best shortcuts to satisfaction in The Art of the Good Life.

The Art of the Good Life is a toolkit designed for practical living. Here you'll find “happiness hacks”–from guilt-free shunning of technology to gleefully paying your parking tickets–that are certain to optimize your happiness. A good life isn’t guaranteed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t strive for it–and this book will give you a better chance at happiness.

A selection of good life strategies

Loved it. Easy weekend read. Mindfulness and empathy strategies. I've also read Dobelli's other books.

No shortcuts, but some good perspectives

Narration was outstanding! The narrator is a big find for me.

I didn't feel there was enough content for this sort of book. The ideas apply to some people some of the time, I feel. Not enough of it applied to me. If the ideas were covered in more depth or if there were more ideas, I'd be more excited about the book.

To me the most interesting viewpoint presented had to do with specialization and generalization in one's life. The author is 100% on the side of specialization. He supports this one with broad historical anecdotes and it certainly does get one thinking.

In my opinion, each of the ideas requires a lot more work. The ideas deserve more effort, because each one offers lots of promise.

Lovely read

l thoroughly enjoyed this book and great narration with 52 bite sized chapters. Lots of life wisdom that will make you better.

an easy but sometimes dark listen

About 1/3 was nuggets of wisdom, 1/3 was neutral to me, and 1/3 was crap. His philosophy is mostly based on atheism, the stoics, and Warren Buffett. the chapters did go by quickly,though, and i found some advice i could use alongside the things i disagreed with.

Well done.

This author always solid. Gonna listen a second time. Definitely worth the time and money.