| According to Brooks, people thrive when they have dense networks of relationships and a clear sense of meaning and purpose. I have no argument with this. Let's start with relationships... We are all social creatures. The reason that solitary confinement is deemed the harshest form of punishment is that we need daily interactions with others to feel whole. We also need meaning. People can bear almost any hardship if they have a strong sense of why they're doing it. (Just ask the soldiers on the front lines in Ukraine.) The irony is that - amid the greatest affluence the world has ever known - millions in the West have chosen to isolate themselves socially and view their lives as devoid of meaning. Go anywhere today, for example, and you'll see many people gazing down at their phones. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. The wind and the birds are singing in the trees. Yet they're oblivious as they scroll through their texts, emails, and social media. Or how about this common scene? A couple is out for dinner in a restaurant. Yet both spend their time looking down at their phones. (Their evenings out must bear a strong resemblance to their evenings in.) We think we are more connected than ever. But real life often ramps down as technology ramps up. There simply is no substitute for face-to-face interaction. Real conversations are awash in facial expressions, tones of voice, body language, and other non-verbal cues. There's a big difference between pushing a "like button" and seeing people laugh and smile. The irony in all this connectivity is greater disconnectedness, an epidemic of distractedness and alienation. As for purpose and meaning, that's up to each of us to provide. The meanings we untap in life are those that we create, the dreams, plans, and projects that we live for. How exciting these are is a measure of our imagination and creativity. A possible starting point might be devoting yourself to some worthy goal or cause. Or how about just being grateful for each day and the privilege of sharing it? Yet David Brooks argues that we are unhappy because we have aggressively embraced values that are poisonous to our wellbeing. "Let's be clear about what's happened here: greed," he concludes. "Americans have become so obsessed with economic success that we've neglected the social and moral conditions that undergird human flourishing." No, we haven't. Americans pursue economic success partly because we enjoy the challenge. But also because we want to live in better homes and neighborhoods. We want to send our kids to better schools. And we know that money gives us choices. That includes the ability to not only do what we want, but to work where we want, as long as we want, so that we can retire when we want. Striving for financial freedom is a worthy goal. But it's not, of course, the only goal. If you want to improve your relationships, feel more connected, or imbue your life with more meaning, then do it. Yet this has nothing to do with being "less greedy" or "less hyper-individualistic" (whatever that means). It's about taking ownership of your life mentally, physically, socially, spiritually... and financially. Of course, that means taking responsibility for your life rather than blaming "society" or "the culture." And no one ever thrived at The New York Times by offering an outdated solution like that. Good investing, Alex | 
