Andrew McCluskey

Quantified status also drives entire industries. Influencer marketing is a $24B market growing quickly. The industry is built on status associations. We see this clearly in the 2010s rise of “the lifestyle influencer”—lifestyles are the most obvious markers of status, and the influencer economy is built on aspiration .

You can buy traffic. You can’t buy audience.

Too many businesses don’t really understand that the core of their business is making people feel good. Whether it’s walking into a store or a restaurant, or being on an airplane, most people go through life hoping that good things will happen to them, and they return to businesses that make those things happen.

The function of art is also clear: Artists propose new ways of doing things and perceiving the world, which if successful, become conventional.

The World Happiness Report suggests that altruism – acts that aim to improve another’s wellbeing – improves your own sense of wellbeing, leading to high life satisfaction and experiencing more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions.