Eric, you've become EXCELLENT with your opening stories:

Let’s check with three groups who know about how to value a life:

• Insurance adjusters: Want some harsh truths about human nature? These guys will show you the dark side of evaluating lives when deciding how to pay out in wrongful death cases.

• Economists: Valuing things is their bread and butter. We can get some data-rich answers here.

• Old people: You’re guessing what the rest of your life is worth. They’ve already finished the race.

What’s funny is, though they may disagree on a lot of things, in the end they all recognize one thing that really makes a life valuable: Relationships.

Let’s get started...

Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/08/what-is-important-in-life/

I vow not to stare at a screen all by myself!

Via Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being:

Vaillant’s insight came from his seminal work on the Grant Study, an almost seventy-year (and ongoing) longitudinal investigation of the developmental trajectories of Harvard College graduates. (This study is also referred to as the Harvard Study.) In a study led by Derek Isaacowitz, we found that the capacity to love and be loved was the single strength most clearly associated with subjective well-being at age eighty.

The lead researcher was asked “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?”

He replied “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/08/what-is-important-in-life/