Mo Gawdat
Mo Gawdat is well known among those interested in the philosophical and practical aspects of artificial intelligence. He is the Chief Business Officer of Google [X], where he works on understanding and enabling the future of AI. He is also the author of the best selling book, Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy and co-founder of the Happiness Challenge project, which is a global initiative to spread psychological well-being and happiness.
Mo Gawdat was born in Egypt and grew up in Alexandria and London. His background is in engineering and business, and has a double major in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alexandria, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. After various roles in engineering and business, he joined the founding team for Google [X], Google’s dream factory. In 2016, he left Google [X] to become Chief Business Officer for Comfort, a robotic home assistant for elderly and disabled people. He returned to Google [X] in 2017.
Moe Gawdat is best known for his book, Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy, which maps out the science of happiness and approaches it as a mathematical equation. He believes that applying the logic of engineering and mathematics to happiness is the key to unlocking it. The core of the book is that our default state, is not happiness. It is sadness, fear and worry, and it’s up to us to take an active role in engineering our happiness.
The first part of the book examines how we think about happiness, putting forth that our understanding of happiness is based on the codification of our values and beliefs. This is framed in three stages: 1) Living a life that aligns with your values and beliefs dictating your own level of happiness; 2) Understanding that our feelings are just feelings, not necessarily rooted in reality; and 3) Settling into your own state of contentedness.
The second part of the book works to address common roadblocks to achieving happiness. From depression to fear, mistrust, anger, and despair, Gawdat examines each issue, offering practical strategies and tools to overcome them. He believes we can transform negative feelings and experiences into positive ones through taking a proactive role in our own happiness. His advice on how to do this covers topics such as reframing difficulties and disappointments, recognizing patterns of behavior, behavior and habits that lead to happiness and unhappiness, and methods for becoming more mindful and content with one’s life.
The last section of the book is a call to action. Gawdat offers advice for how to put his strategies into practice, and see results in our own life. His advice centers around cultivating positive relationships, forming strong values, controlling our impulses and ultimately, recognizing that happiness comes from within.
Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy is a thought-provoking book that addresses the challenges that arise in our pursuit of happiness. Through engaging and practical advice, Gawdat challenges us to take responsibility for our own happiness. He challenges us to decode the equation and apply the results to our own lives, ultimately discovering our own version of happiness.
