Harvard professor Arthur Brooks reveals his secret to happiness

Arthur Brooks, AEI President Emeritus, Harvard professor and senior fellow, and 'Build the Life You Want' co-author, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the science of happiness, applications in the workplace, career advice for new graduates, and more. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: cnb.cx/2NGeIvi
» Subscribe to CNBC TV: cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision
» Subscribe to CNBC: cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide.
Connect with CNBC News Online
Get the latest news: www.cnbc.com/
Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Facebook: cnb.cx/LikeCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Twitter: cnb.cx/FollowCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Instagram: cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC
www.cnbc.com/select/best-cred...
#CNBC
#CNBCTV

[@jw999]

Why can't they just let him talk??!!

[@GetMikeNyce]

Kernan got to go

[@mikek.9980]

@@GetMikeNyce Sarcastic Egomaniac!!.........The worst combination!

[@Dana-ee9pb]

The connection with family and friends by working from home is far superior to randos at work.

[@wread1982]

My family drives me crazy

[@stockholmpublishings2937]

bro, he's bought by the big corporations. anyone in their right mind knows that working from home is superior vs losing 2h each days on traveling time while spending your whole day in an office that shines bright light in your eyes and makes you hate life.

[@TraderNateTrading]

EXACTLY

[@scholaroftheworldalternatehist]

Exactly. Most people are at work to collect a paycheck, never think of them like friends as they are quick to betray you

[@drayne3750]

Your all way over paid to type on a computer and talk in meetings

[@kenny0626]

CNBC should have more of these discussions

[@stachowi]

how will they push stocks they're paid to push

[@Acquisition1913]

KZbin has plenty

[@mikek.9980]

Joe with his giant EGO!! He won't allow anybody to speak.... He knows everything and he's the "BEST".........

[@jeffmorrison2915]

He's annoying indeed. He just cannot wait for his turn when a Harvard professor talks. He ruined the whole focus.

[@mikek.9980]

@@jeffmorrison2915 Yeah, even Backy and Sorkin are really annoyed due to his behavior!

[@miguelv9479]

Boorish.

[@opinion4415]

Yes, relationships with people are what make people happy. Of course having enough money to live without worry helps too.

[@doubleoseven273]

I’ve been on zoom for 3 years now and I’m way happier than in the office

[@MathSolutionsForYou]

Most of the relationships that give us happiness (e.g. friends, partner, spouse, children, family) are social relationships as opposed to relationships you develop at work which are mostly professional in nature. The problem is that work is often so consuming that it does not leave any room for anything else. Working from home provides the opportunity and time to nurture relationships that make people more happy. You can figure it out by simple math: if you spend 40 minutes in commute, 5 days a week, your time spent in a year (50 weeks) just commuting (adding little or no productivity) is 10000 minutes which is equivalent to 167 hours (more than 4 work weeks, assuming 40 hrs/week of work). If you give all that time to develop your family/social relationships you will be in a much happier place. Most of the employees report better mental well-being working from home than in office. This exactly shows what's wrong with Harvard and its professors -- their research is ill-informed and their message and conclusions could not be far off from the ground truth !

[@joseb9525]

How does this guy teach at Harvard? He’s clearly a smooth brain - speaking in definitives and so sure of his opinion. Crazy.

[@2394098234509]

I'm glad someone else sees it. Can't believe how many people in the comments are lapping up his drivel

[@annecivetta607]

After a short discussion about politics in the U.S. and South Africa, my taxi driver in Cape Town told me he knew the secret to peace and happiness. And I asked him to share the secret. “Love,“ he told me. “Love is the way to peace and happiness.” And he’s right!

[@michaeld.anderson5076]

Relationship first. Harvard's 80 year study on happiness came to the same conclusion :)

[@shumayelkhan8154]

Romantic relationship?

[@bdub884]

@@shumayelkhan8154 relationships of all kinds, friendship included.

[@KhamPisethOfficial]

The secret to happiness is Teaching Other To Be Happy ❤

[@AlwaysLoudAA]

Trust me, my oxytocin levels are 1000x higher at home with my pets and wife and kid than it is with random boomers at my office 4x a week. What is he smoking?

[@fernandodoria8717]

I believe Happiness comes from Spiritual Wealth, not Monetary or Man Made Wealth. We get Spiritual Wealth from loving and helping our family, friends and others more.

[@jeffmorrison2915]

Yes but don't forget the famous saying: money is not everything, but poverty is.

[@user-hf2dr7sh4y]

yeah. and for every hour this boomer of a coworker wants to force people to spend dying on the highways in their commute to a job they can do remotely, is an hour those people are not helping their local community, raising their children, or going to a community social event.

[@scholaroftheworldalternatehist]

Happiness is supposed to be temporary, it is body's way of rewarding something positive biologically. Too many people crave constant dopamine hits and need more things to get that high.

[@wohola]

More content like this, managing life and happiness like managing business.

[@tancore1]

Is it me or the CNBC guys were interrupting him too much?

[@MiguelJCintron]

This only makes sense in a utopia where all employees you work with don’t drive you crazy. 99% of people have that handful of coworkers that make them wish they can work from home.

[@fredm.2699]

You’re missing a key point: more people are caring less for work itself. We care for work only because of the check. But we don’t care for work itself. We would be happy getting a check for free, but not working for free. It’s the check we care for. I can play basketball for free. I don’t care for a check when it comes to basketball. Ppl want the check from work either for security or to build their business.

[@wread1982]

My parents were always controlling and yelling, absolutely no comfort Or oxytocin, I’ve struggled with anxiety and low self esteem my whole life cause of them, I’m 40 now

[@scholaroftheworldalternatehist]

Oh please grow up. You sound like you're 20. Are you still living with your parents?

[@sakcee]

You and me both brother… my Asian parents didn’t even love each other, let alone their kids

[@somedumbguy7281]

I work from home, and am very happy. I also spend a lot of my free time working on a side business and scheduling time with my fiance. Perhaps most importantly is my faith in Jesus.

[@natalyashagramanova7025]

Will these people stop interrupting???

[@user-wr4yl7tx3w]

Happiness is not having to wear a tie due to arbitrary customs.

[@wread1982]

😂

[@user-hf2dr7sh4y]

yeah. and for every hour this boomer of a coworker wants to force people to spend dying on the highways in their commute to a job they can do remotely, is an hour those people are not helping their local community, raising their children, or going to a community social event.

[@elouiseblackwelder3275]

What were the four things at the end?

[@marc8750]

Don’t worry too much about wealth, economics, and the job market. Focus on you. Many other generations failed to emphasize that and working jobs they are miserable and overworked at. Just focus on yourself and personal growth in life. Not how growth is perceived by others and society.

[@bigwaidave4865]

Deleted Twitter and several news apps including CNBC from my Iphone this year. Best move ever ...other than buying more of NVDA !!!!!

[@maryannhartzell2958]

Dr. Arthur Brooks was on CNBC this morning and he was saying that you become happier in your 50s. I really disagree with that statement. Your body starts to give out in your 50s , menopause, your parents are older and dying, you realize your time on earth is not infinite and the list keeps going on and on.

[@LuukBotter86]

Worst interview ever. Please stop interrupting him

[@mel3457]

But like he said, it's up the person. My husband worked in an office for 19 years, and these 3 years, he is happier and has started a garden baking bread and more productive. And doesn't have any social media.

[@briantep458]

i don't have friends... I GOT FAMILY

[@hossman201]

They should have Dom Toretto on here instead and talk about FAMILY

[@Cardia91]

The amount of sidebar in this segment is disturbing. Please let your guest speak!

[@jimbojimbo6873]

I can come in 2 days a week but any more than that I’ll leave for a job that will

[@rebeccavoodoo2191]

Give us a break ! Happiness is our capacity to appreciate our fantastic ! exquisite, magnificent, intoxicating quintessence of dust it’s proportionate to everyone’s measurement…give us a break

[@Quantitative_Teasing]

Hmmm sure… I don’t drive in traffic for an hour each way and I’m real happy.

[@bdegrds]

Young generation are too coddled by their parents, they live in virtual reality with no sense of the real world, they need a reality check, force them to get a job at 16, have them contribute to the household, teach them responsibility and how to navigate the real world and kick them out by 24

[@MyAcsm]

Your argument is moronic. The goal of society is to make life progressively easier, not harder. Compared to people who lived in the 1700s, your life was much easier too. You wouldn't want to go back to living back then would you?

[@AtlanticIslander]

God, really guys, “you have to go into work to be happy”. I’m sorry if that’s the conclusion here then you all are either completely incompetent or grossly biased. Going to mindless meetings in office and listening to the “chosen” ones all day is so very far from where happiness comes from. In fact, this is probably more close to the source of burnout and depression. Seriously, this is what you think people believe?? The source of happiness is helping others and yes, relationships. On that latter one though, finding quality and honest relationships does not happen in the office. Keep in mind that once you introduce all of the toxicities of a typical office, it much more resembles the show survivor. And what we’re seeing now is the people are realizing that they can choose NOT to participate in this game that is created only to benefit the owners. The best people are going where their needs are met not where they’re told what their needs are. Wake up!!

[@JernejZupanc]

Get the happiness hormones from family and friends instead of coworkers. One of the stupidest arguments for promoting going back to the office...

[@brandonworjih]

didn’t really like this analysis lmao

[@LeveragedFinance]

You can human contact friends and wives.

[@VietNguyen-vj4su]

happiness comes from hard work like getting a job, doing something constructive. once one has the foundation built, then happiness would come, sorry i don't see any rational being can fool himself into happiness (not for long.

[@chiquita683]

Gen Z is the most depressed and drug addicted generation there is. I wouldn't believe a single word a modern College professor was telling people about happiness.

[@tonynunez6539]

The hippie generation of the 1960's said hold my beer and LSD.

[@bdegrds]

No, they are spoiled entitled brats. Look at what the previous generations that escaped war in the early and mid 1900's accomplished, those people had real problems and didn't whine about it

[@user-wr4yl7tx3w]

Is there a Harvard professor that teaches that everyone is a racist?

[@chrispiorecki]

wow, this guy is trying to prescribe a way to happiness, so silly. Good morning my wonderful MBA students, today you will learn the 7 steps to happiness and tomorrow believe it or not you will learn the 7 habits of happy people, but that's not all I will also teach you the 7 rules that will keep you happy forever. If you follow this "how to" manual to happiness I can guarantee complete success, if, for any reason you don't achieve your desired level of happiness, you will get a full refund of your entire MBA program.

[@keto6789]

No thanks. Can't stand being around my wife all day. I like going to work and hanging with my buds!

[@WarriorChampion47]

If u have a wife I think only she’s happy . Cos she gain happiness thru your misery 😂 and if u have a bad mother in law.. eye contact and touch create misery and not happiness . Maybe you guys are in a delusional world .

[@wread1982]

Money is the root of all happiness

[@kalilbm]

I know he is from Harvard but but that’s a lot of crap - kids need to learn the basics. Have a solid moral footing and then follow that up with an active lifestyle. Maybe good athletes make better leaders than kids with insanely high GMAT scores. Good families come from solid values. I haven’t read any of his books but I am not impressed.

[@JoeDurbs]

U can't learn about business it's an instant.

[@tonynunez6539]

An instant is a habit learned through time and programming. How you react by "instant" here in the United States is very different than the way a Muslim would react in the Middle East.

[@bdegrds]

No

[@networkinginstitute]

These dudes are lost 🙂

[@ravneetdhillon5390]

BS

[@calliel9159]

STOP interrupting!!!

[@sakcee]

Well I don’t need to touch and look in the eyes 👀 of coworkers to get love…..geez…what’s this prof smoking