Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

In real life, cooperation can be far more beneficial and far less costly.

Those who saw their life existing for a reason greater than themselves persisted, while others smoked their cigarettes before making that final run toward the fence.

With that structure, things that sound utterly boring on the surface can become incredibly fun and rewarding—even addictive.

All the fancy science is great, but let’s talk about life. Why isn’t your job fun? The answer is quite simple, really: work, as we know it today, is a really lousy game.

“If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.”

When you take a job take a long look at the people you’re going to be working with—because the odds are you’re going to become like them; they are not going to become like you. You can’t change them. If it doesn’t fit who you are, it’s not going to work.

“a healthy mind tells itself flattering lies.”

on those two and you can be as unstoppable as a Toronto raccoon—but so successful that you’ll never have to eat out of a trash can.

Studies show that your boss has a much larger effect on your happiness and success than the company at large.