Speaker
Arthur Brooks
28 bits across the podcasts they've appeared on
Clinical rates of depression have tripled and anxiety has doubled since approximately 2008, coinciding with the rise of smartphone and social media use.
The average American checks their phone 205 times a day, pushing them into left-brain dominance and away from right-brain meaning.
More than 85% of pornography is consumed by men, and the more they consume the lonelier they actually become despite momentary relief.
62% of couples now form online, making it increasingly difficult to establish relationships entirely offline.
Almost any diet will make you lose weight short-term, but they have an 80-95% failure rate after one year as people regain the weight.
The US diet industry is worth $40 billion yet fails roughly nine out of ten times, epitomising the arrival fallacy.
OECD data shows above-average busy people carry above-average risk of alcohol abuse; the archetypal alcohol abuser is more likely an investment banker than someone down-and-out.
Arthur Brooks stopped drinking at age 38 after recognising he didn't like being alone in his own head, describing it as the hardest step in recovery.
Human brains are essentially the same size and shape as they were 250,000 years ago in the middle Pleistocene, yet we now live in an environment radically different from the one they were designed for.
Arthur Brooks recommends 96 hours per year of complete technology fasting, noting that by day four people typically feel a state of bliss.
Meaning comprises three components — coherence (why things happen), purpose (why you do what you do), and significance (why your life matters) — according to social psychologist Michael Steger.
People with a spiral career pattern need to completely rebuild their career every 7-12 years, taking everything learned and channelling it into a new adventure.
Happiness has three macronutrients: enjoyment (pleasure + people + memory), satisfaction (achieving goals through struggle), and meaning. It is meaning that has collapsed in modern society.
The number of therapists has tripled at the same time that depression rates have tripled, suggesting more therapy alone is not solving the root cause.
Olympic gold medalists routinely experience depression after winning, a phenomenon known as gold medalist syndrome or the arrival fallacy — the anticipated feeling of 'finally being special' never arrives.
