Their method boils down to "think about what you're doing." It sounds simple enough, but it's something that takes practice, and as someone who does practice it

Their method boils down to "think about what you're doing." It sounds simple enough, but it's something that takes practice, and as someone who does practice it, the lack of practice by others does become apparent. We tend to shoot ourselves in the foot, and the control and focus we need to get things done often is a simple matter of not shooting ourselves, as opposed to gaining some new or special insight. The reason why many end up on facebook or addicted to cigarettes or pile on credit card debt or subscribed to Time Warner is not because we suck. It's because there are seriously effective forces actively trying to get us to do these things. Cigarettes maybe not so much as before, but it boils down to them physically being addictive and their ads being effective etc. The engineers at facebook aren't trying to help you not waste time. Their actively seeking to keep you there. So in the end, we're not underestimating our own inadequacy. We're underestimating our collective competency at getting people to buy and do things we want. It's just that we find ourselves at the wrong end of it too often. And regarding happiness... At the end of the article there is a guy talking about how he gets up an hour early to do the things he wants... That's pretty much it. Happiness is also a skill because it takes practice, and the best way to practice it is by making other people happy. Once we get good at recognizing the simple causes of happiness, we can then do the same with ourselves, almost as if we were just another person. And it does boil down to the simple pleasures such as "making coffee and listening to Moby-Dick". There really isn't much more to it. So practice thinking about what you're doing, and practice making everyone happy. Include "yourself" in "everyone". Brilliant!