{"id":273113,"date":"2026-08-27T08:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273113\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:24:12","slug":"author-and-scholar-arthur-brooks-on-how-to-achieve-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273113\/","title":{"rendered":"Author and scholar Arthur Brooks on how to achieve happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHappiness is the business of life. Every single one of you is a startup entrepreneur, and you\u2019re the founder of You Incorporated.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was best-selling author and former professor Arthur Brooks\u2019 message to Pitt community members Tuesday evening. Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people in Alumni Hall, Brooks argued that young people are losing the ability to find meaning in their life, partially because of technology\u2019s effect on mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After his speech, Brooks spoke on a panel with Chancellor Joan Gabel, engineering associate professor David Sanchez School of Nursing professor Grant Martsolf.<\/p>\n

Brooks said he has administered a survey to students for 30 years about life\u2019s meaning. Since 2008, he has observed a decline in students feeling their life is meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, 50% fail,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cHalf of young adults today say that their life feels meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks said he believes the feeling of meaninglessness is a predictor of mental health issues in young adults, citing statistics showing that generalized anxiety and clinical depression<\/a> have both significantly increased<\/a> among young people since 2008.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLoneliness, people not knowing [others] well, self harm, addiction, all up,\u201d Brooks said<\/p>\n

Brooks argued that a major catalyst for the spike in the lack of life meaning was the introduction of iPhones in 2007<\/a> and that having technology \u201cin your pocket\u201d has caused people to stop using the right hemisphere of their brain, which he said is used to answer \u201ccomplex questions.\u201d He explained that the right hemisphere of the brain is used creatively, while the left side follows a logical approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t know the meaning of our life \u2014 we don\u2019t even ask the questions, and that\u2019s where we are today,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Brooks argued that the ability to decipher life\u2019s meaning can improve a person\u2019s ability to understand their motivations in work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to have the why as well, and understand the why of your life, so you can understand the why of your work,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

To find life\u2019s meaning, Brooks suggested using a three-step formula including using objects with abundance and gratitude, loving people and worshipping the divine, however a person understands that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLook for this, then you don\u2019t have to figure out any of your life, but your life will figure out you,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Attendee Phil Cicco, the assistant director for project management with the Office of Multidisciplinary Innovations<\/a>, said he believes having the opportunity to come to events like this is good for the entirety of the University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think folks tend to think of their jobs as a job, and it\u2019s something that you just have to do, and you get a paycheck,\u201d Cicco said. \u201cBut understanding that there\u2019s a lot more that goes behind being happy with your job is important, and I think Pitt does that really well. Inviting Dr. Brooks here to talk about it only reinforces that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah Harvey, a first-year politics and philosophy major, attended the event because she has been listening to Arthur Brooks\u2019 podcast for a while and was happy that the university hosted the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt very aligned with Pitt when I chose it, and they are showing up for me in a way that reinforces that,\u201d Harvey said.<\/p>\n

Harvey said she felt the event leaned toward focusing on faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough students were welcomed, it wasn\u2019t really geared towards students,\u201d Harvey said. \u201c[But] anyone can walk away with takeaways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trey Henry, a first-year undeclared student, said he appreciates the university addressing issues of meaning among young adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome they\u2019re making the effort. It\u2019s definitely a problem that the data shows that, so it\u2019s good they\u2019re at least trying something,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

Gabe Longenecker, a first year biochemistry major, said he felt the event was educational to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talk was comforting and eye-opening to the problems in the world,\u201c Longenecker said.<\/p>\n

Longenecker said he would like to see more implementation of human flourishing tactics around the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be very beneficial. It would help the whole Pitt community as a whole if it was integrated more into our learning,\u201d Longenecker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHappiness is the business of life. Every single one of you is a startup entrepreneur, and you\u2019re the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-273113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}