Doubt Monster

Doubt Monster

Can Writers Ever Truly Be Happy?

Radically redefining goals may hold the key

Amy L Bernstein's avatar
Amy L Bernstein
Nov 11, 2025
∙ Paid
woman doing yoga meditation on brown parquet flooring
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash

Arthur C. Brooks is a popstar-famous social scientist who writes a lot about happiness—what it is, how to find it, and why it’s so elusive. His latest “high concept” (like filmmakers, social scientists also boil ideas down to neat loglines) is all about the “reverse bucket list.”

I believe Brooks is onto something with this…

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