Solve for Happy

Solve for Happy, a non-fiction book by Mo Gawdat, the chief business officer of Google X, explores a logical approach to finding happiness and contentment, offering Gawdat’s own story as he worked through his grief after his son passed away.

Gawdat began working on the book after his son, Ali, died at the age of twenty-one. Gawdat recounts how despite material and professional success, he has been depressed most of his life. He describes his early life in Egypt being raised by his mother, a professor. While working in Dubai, his depression became almost overwhelming, and he began working on an “equation” for being happy. Later, he shared this equation with his son, and they refined it together. When his son died during a routine procedure in the hospital, Gawdat turned to the equation they had worked on together as a coping mechanism. The book is the result of these efforts.

Gawdat explains the equation, beginning with the premise that happiness is our “default” state, and thus happiness is something that we must look for inside ourselves—looking outside ourselves for happiness will always fail. Gawdat then describes our emotional states as a spectrum as opposed to a binary state of either happy or unhappy. He lays out his logical approach to solving for happiness: identify and debunk six illusions we all trade in, become aware of seven blind spots that we all suffer from, and discover and internalize five fundamental truths.



Gawdat tackles the six grand illusions. First is the inner monologue we all experience, which he argues is not really us talking to ourselves, but rather our brain communicating to us. As a result, we are free to ignore our inner voice, or disagree. Just because you think to yourself that you cannot do something does not mean it is true. Next, he argues that though we all believe we are the stars of our own story, that this is not true. We are all just observers of the world, and once we remove the supposed need to be in charge and drive the action, we will be happier and more honest.

Gawdat argues that we don’t know nearly as much as we think we do; true knowledge is the realization that we are incredibly ignorant. He then busts the illusion that time has any meaning at all—the past and the future don’t exist, all that matters is what we are doing in the here and now. The next illusion is that we have control over our existence—we don’t; really, we can only control our reactions and our attitude. He advises us to assume everything will ultimately fine; if it’s not yet fine, it simply means we’re not done yet. Finally, Gawdat tackles the illusion that bad things won’t happen. He focuses on death, advising that we must admit our fear of death and deal with it.

Next, Gawdat address our blind spots. We must realize that our brains filter how we see the world, giving us incomplete information. We must realize that we make assumptions as a way of bridging gaps in our information and knowledge; these assumptions are not the truth. We also make predictions and guesses that are not the truth. Our own memories are often unreliable and are not real. We also use labels and shorthand for things, distorting their meaning or reality. In addition, our emotions often color and warp how we see the world. Finally, we are all guilty of exaggeration, resulting in a distorted view of reality.
Gawdat moves on to what he argues are universal truths. First, he argues that living in the moment and being aware of what is happening to us right now is a natural state of happiness. Next, be grateful and seek a path forward that doesn’t feel like an effort—that is how we will know we have found the right way forward. He advises us to be giving and generous, to love those around us—the more we do, so the happier we’ll be. Accepting our mortality and our lack of control over death will also make us happier and less stressed. Finally, Gawdat examines the extreme odds against our existence in the first place, leading him to conclude that waiting for any sort of intervention from a deity is foolish.



Gawdat concludes by describing his immediate reaction to his son’s death, his realization that nothing he could do would bring his son back, and a review of some of the last things Ali had said, how each idea his son offered was a cornerstone of his new approach to seeking happiness.