Harvard Developed AI Identifies the Shortest Path to Human Happiness

There is ample scientific evidence to show us that the most fulfilling lives are the ones that maximize feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

And thus, the Harvard Study of Adult Development was born. The original cohort of 268 men included people from many walks of life, including some who went on to become well-known, such as John F. Kennedy and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. Still, over the decades it was deemed too demographically insular—all Harvard men!—to give generalizable r

Psychologists, including Harvard’s Ben-Shahar, say that one way to analyze how people approach the world is by asking whether what they’re doing makes them happy today, and whether it will make them happier tomorrow.

Shawn Achor, a professor of positive psychology at Harvard, says, “What we’re finding is that it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. If I know everything about your external world, I can only predict 10 percent of your long-term happiness. Ninety percent of yo