Sunday, May 5, 2013

A Study of Life

The Atlantic:
In June 2009, The Atlantic published a cover story on the Grant Study, one of the longest-running longitudinal studies of human development. The project, which began in 1938, has followed 268 Harvard undergraduate men for 75 years, measuring an astonishing range of psychological, anthropological, and physical traits—from personality type to IQ to drinking habits to family relationships to “hanging length of his scrotum”—in an effort to determine what factors contribute most strongly to human flourishing.
The director of the study's key takeaway:
 Vaillant’s key takeaway, in his own words: “The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points … to a straightforward five-word conclusion: ‘Happiness is love. Full stop.’ ”
That would be my best guess at what happiness is.  The article linked to is one of my all-time favorites.  It was fascinating to me to get glimpses into not only what the subjects told the doctor, but his reading of it.  If you have an hour or so, I highly recommend it.

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