Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

All That Happiness Is

By: Adam Gopnik
Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £4.99

Buy Now for £4.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

From New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, a concise, elegant volume presenting a radical alternative to our culture of relentless striving.

Our society is obsessed with achievement. Young people are pushed toward the next test or the "best" grammar school, high school, or college they can get into. Adults push themselves toward the highest-paying, most prestigious jobs, seeking promotions and public recognition. As Adam Gopnik points out, the result is not so much a rat race as a rat maze, with no way out. Except one: to choose accomplishment over achievement. Achievement, Gopnik argues, is the completion of the task imposed from outside. Accomplishment, by contrast, is the end point of an engulfing activity one engages in for its own sake. From stories of artists, philosophers, and scientists to his own fumbling attempts to play Beatles songs on a guitar, Gopnik demonstrates that while self-directed passions sometimes do lead to a career, the contentment that flows from accomplishment is available to each of us. A book to enjoy and return to at any age, All That Happiness Is offers timeless wisdom against the grain.

©2024 Adam Gopnik (P)2024 Ascent Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about All That Happiness Is

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.