Dr. Paul Conti

bringing cookies to the person next door who's lost family and doesn't have anyone.

This is what's in us that leads us to be more than just scrambling for survival all the time.

And if you look at what's beautiful about humanity, what do we value?

We value what we create.

We value painting and music and the structures that we create and the gestures we show to one another, that this is our humanness.

it's the best part of us.

And when it governs our lives, it drives us towards not just success, but success in achieving happiness.

And happiness, it's a word that can mean many, many things.

If you look at how have people been happy throughout the lifespan, people have been able to find peace, contentment, and delight.

And it's the generative drive that guides us towards this

happiness you know peace being I can just find times when I don't have to think about anything there's nothing on my mind there's nothing weighing on me there's nothing I have to do I can just be and I can feel okay I can feel good contentment is when I'm aware of my life I'm aware of the facts in my life I'm aware of the challenges and the tragedies in my life I'm aware of the strivings and the achievements in my life and I feel okay I feel good about life and the life that I'm leading

And delight is really the capacity for delight, that we can still, as adults, be delighted by things as we were as children.

And all studies that have looked at people and what makes happiness in people, it's peace, contentment, and this capacity for delight.

And all of that is governed by the generative drive.

probably varies genetically just like many, many things in humans.

So our genes don't dictate anything about us, right?

They just dictate probability ranges.

So some people have a capacity for a very high generative drive.

We see people who are like, wow, that person is doing five amazing things at once, right?

And it's not that all of us have to be that way.