Summary of Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The world’s greatest philosophers came from Europe, because they spent their time at cafés and let their minds wander until some radically new school of philosophy popped into their heads. I was hunting for happiness.

#2 I visit the World Database of Happiness, or WDH, in the morning. It is a secularist’s answer to the Vatican and Mecca and Jerusalem and Lhasa, all rolled into one.

#3 I interview Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, a professor of happiness studies, who explains to me that he came of age in the 1960s, when everyone on his college campus was smoking pot and wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. He was interested in healthy minds and happy places.

#4 The study of happiness was born out of the contemplation of happiness, which was not new. The ancient Greeks and Romans did a lot of it, as did the Jewish and Catholic faith leaders who came after them. But it was not science.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822533493

IRB Media

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Insights on Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The world’s greatest philosophers came from Europe, because they spent their time at cafés and let their minds wander until some radically new school of philosophy popped into their heads. I was hunting for happiness.

#2

I visit the World Database of Happiness, or WDH, in the morning. It is a secularist’s answer to the Vatican and Mecca and Jerusalem and Lhasa, all rolled into one.

#3

I interview Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, a professor of happiness studies, who explains to me that he came of age in the 1960s, when everyone on his college campus was smoking pot and wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. He was interested in healthy minds and happy places.

#4

The study of happiness was born out of the contemplation of happiness, which was not new. The ancient Greeks and Romans did a lot of it, as did the Jewish and Catholic faith leaders who came after them. But it was not science.

#5

The science of happiness needed data. So, researchers asked people around the world how happy they were, and found that the answers were remarkably accurate.

#6

Happiness is a very subjective thing, and people constantly report higher levels of happiness when they are asked in face-to-face interviews rather than in mail-in surveys.

#7

There is no single definition of happiness, and it varies from culture to culture. Some cultures value happiness more than others, and East Asian countries tend to emphasize harmony and fulfilling societal obligations rather than individual contentment.

#8

The atlas of bliss, if one exists, will not be easy to read. It will contain countries that are very different from each other, and may even contradict each other. Some of the happiest countries in the world have high suicide rates, while others do not.

#9

The media, in general, report only bad news, and this leads people to believe that the world is an unhappy place. But the majority of people say they are happy.

#10

The Dutch are a happy people,