The Most Important Optimization: Happiness
summary
Claim: happiness is the primary optimization and it breaks down to CAR: capacity activities relationships. Actionable specifics: boost capacity with exercise nutrition and sleep, pick location to maximize time and money (moving to San Francisco can be 136% more expensive), run intentional checks — run your specs daily — and treat career skills as written communication (use open source to learn remote collaboration). Concrete programs mentioned: LivingSocial hiring and Hungry Academy; aim to feel stupid to force growth.
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chapters (25)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:23Why happiness talk
- 4:12From games to programming
- 7:48Unchecked assumptions danger
- 8:50Test life like code
- 10:37Positive psychology research
- 13:25CAR model for happiness
- 15:10Capacity resources
- 16:15Activities to do
- 16:35Relationships to do
- 18:00Red green refactor life
- 19:23Exercise nutrition sleep
- 21:08Location’s impact
- 24:21Remote work better
- 27:10Remote work objections
- 31:03Programming is communication
- 32:25Open source remote training
- 34:31Your product manager role
- 35:13Employers shouldn’t dictate location
- 37:19Job security myth
- 40:07Feel stupid keep growing
- 43:18Salary raises treadmill
- 45:02Prioritize people over loyalty
- 46:25Happiness for creativity
- 47:51Summary
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