From Strength to Strength

What Hacker News says

1. hamburglarNov 2025
   There’s a great book by Arthur Brooks called From Strength to Strength which has a slightly different take on “reality minus expectations”: think of it as a fraction, where what you have is the numerator and what you want is the denominator. If you keep ratcheting up what you want (which is what the hedonic treadmill is all about —- you reach a goal and enjoy it for a nanosecond and then suddenly you need an even bigger achievement to satisfy you), you push happiness further away. And conversely, if you learn to want things that are actually in reach, you become happier as you achieve them.
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2. gregorymichaelMay 2024
   Check out the book From Strength To Strength by Arthur Brooks. It’s a bit of a mid-life crisis book that addresses this. In short: develop hobbies, invest in friends/community, explore spiritually.
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3. yefJan 2023
   You might find the concept of Ikigai interesting. Also, Arthur C. Brooks recently wrote a book, From Strength to Strength. I think his audience skews slightly older than you, but it's about how people find meaningful second careers by leveraging the wisdom they have gained in their first career.

   Just my opinion, but there are tons of ways to find meaning, e.g. advising startups, angel investing, teaching, giving talks at your alma mater, generally helping people in different ways. It's not for everyone, but lots of people have kids and find meaning through them. You can also do stuff for your parents. Looking back on it, I wish I had just paid for a home improvement project at my parents' house rather than simply suggesting it to them and hoping they'd do it.

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4. tpoolJan 2023
   I’ve felt this too in my 40s. I generally don’t recommend books that might be considered self-help, but a recent book by Arthur Brooks called “From Strength to Strength” was really helpful for me to understand what’s happening to me, and how to embrace the use of crystallized intelligence in my later career. If that doesn’t interest you, you can find some interviews with him about the subject and book in a few places by search.
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5. physiclesSep 2022
   From Strength to Strength, by Arthur C Brooks. I heard about it from Sam Harris’s recent interview with Brooks. Focuses on the very practical nuts and bolts of growing old, what that means for you in all aspects, and how to capitalize on your new strengths while letting go of the old ways that won’t serve you anymore.

   I plan to read it in a few years when I have my own mid-life crisis.

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6. noveltyaccountApr 2022
   I'm currently reading the book From Strength to Strength by Arthur C Brooks and it is really hitting home. I identify with everything you say, perhaps not as strongly, but I've chased success and achievement my whole life. And now, in my early forties, I'm over it. Work dangles the carrot, and I don't care. I want to spend time with my family, focus on my hobbies and physical health, that I time and again deprioritize in favor of working more. I mean, what if I wake up with a cancer diagnosis, or die in a car accident? I will look back at my life and say, what was the point of making all that money when I never lived? To that end I'm about to take a sabbatical (possibly early retirement), but there's an internal head game that the book is helping me with. It's not enough to step off the treadmill without some awareness of why I was on it in the first place, the short version of which is: my ego likes being admired as a Very Successful Person™.
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