I am in my twenties. That being said, I would answer your question in book form -- that is, books that changed the way I do things and view the world and that I wish I'd read when I was younger:
1. <em>Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience</em> by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
2. <em>The Guide to Getting It On</em> by Paul Johannides [sp?]
3. <em>The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature</em> by Geoffrey Miller
4. <em>Hackers & Painters</em> by Paul Graham
5. <em>Man's Search for Meaning</em> by Viktor Frankl
6. <em>Stumbling on Happiness</em> by Daniel Gilbert
7. <em>The Time Paradox</em> by Philip Zimbardo.
That last one is particularly important: it points out that, once you've reached a comfortable but, for a highly educated person, relatively low level of income (around ~$40K for an individual), additional income increases do not matter for very for overall happiness.
What does? Friends, family, your sex life, meaningful work.
What doesn't help for happiness? TV. See the journal article "Does watching TV make us happy?" by Bruno S. Frey, Christine Benesch, and Alois Stutzer for more on the answer: "no."
1. <em>Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience</em> by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
2. <em>The Guide to Getting It On</em> by Paul Johannides [sp?]
3. <em>The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature</em> by Geoffrey Miller
4. <em>Hackers & Painters</em> by Paul Graham
5. <em>Man's Search for Meaning</em> by Viktor Frankl
6. <em>Stumbling on Happiness</em> by Daniel Gilbert
7. <em>The Time Paradox</em> by Philip Zimbardo.
That last one is particularly important: it points out that, once you've reached a comfortable but, for a highly educated person, relatively low level of income (around ~$40K for an individual), additional income increases do not matter for very for overall happiness.
What does? Friends, family, your sex life, meaningful work.
What doesn't help for happiness? TV. See the journal article "Does watching TV make us happy?" by Bruno S. Frey, Christine Benesch, and Alois Stutzer for more on the answer: "no."