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Reason to Be Happy

Reason to Be Happy

Why logical thinking is the key to a better life

Summary

'Reason to Be Happy is a wise and witty book that shows how thinking clearly can help us find happiness in our daily lives, get more of what we want, and even make the world a better place' Hannah Fry

Why do our friends have more friends than we do? How do you book the best available seats on a plane? And if jogging for ten minutes adds eight minutes to our life expectancy, should we still go jogging?

The ability to reason is one of our most undervalued skills. In everyday life, the key is to put yourself in the shoes of a clever competitor and think about how they might respond. Whether you are dealing with events on the scale of the Cuban missile crisis or letting go of anger, leading economist Professor Kaushik Basu shows how game theory - the logic of social situations - can help us achieve better outcomes and lasting happiness.

Full of fascinating thought experiments and puzzles, Reason to Be Happy is a paean to the power of rationality. If you want to have a good life and even make the world a better place, you can start by thinking clearly.

Reviews

  • Reason to Be Happy is a wise and witty book that shows how thinking clearly can help us find happiness in our daily lives, get more of what we want, and even make the world a better place.
    Professor Hannah Fry, author of Hello World

About the author

Kaushik Basu

Kaushik Basu is Carl Marks Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016, and was previously Chief Economic Advisor to the government of India.
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