If Oliver wants to understand happiness, I think he should consider why his friend was extremely happy during her PhD. That she was unhappy later when she could

If Oliver wants to understand happiness, I think he should consider why his friend was extremely happy during her PhD. That she was unhappy later when she couldn't find work does not make her a counter example to following one's passion. When your needs aren't met, you can get unhappy. In my experience, happiness comes from your relationship to the present. Follow your passion or work on a "big problem" or work everyday at a job. All can make you happy or unhappy. Being happy lies in how you live your experiences while following your passion or working on a big problem or doing whatever it is that you do. How do you react to trouble? How do you handle success and praise? How do you go about doing what you do? Do you help people? Do you compete? Are you satisfying your basic needs? From what I can tell, barring the effects of illnesses like depression, happiness lies in how you choose to go about your life and how you handle its ups and downs. Unfortunately, I haven't yet figured out the nuances of the above questions and others like them, so I don't know which answers result in happiness, but that's life, I guess. Some random things I've read on the topic: http://goo.gl/xxvkl http://goo.gl/xxvkl http://goo.gl/fKYlM http://goo.gl/fKYlM