The Good Life

Drawing on the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of human life ever conducted, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz argue that people consistently misjudge what will make them happy, chasing career success and material comfort while neglecting the relationships that actually predict wellbeing, health, and longevity decades later. They present data following hundreds of participants across their entire adult lives, showing that warm, secure connections to spouses, friends, and community buffer against stress and physical decline in measurable ways, while isolation functions almost like a chronic illness. The authors pair this evidence with practical guidance on how people can deliberately invest in relationships at any life stage, treating social fitness as a skill to build rather than a trait you either have or lack.

The book matters because it reorients a culture preoccupied with individual achievement and self-optimization toward a more communal, evidence-backed understanding of the good life. By showing decades of longitudinal data rather than cross-sectional surveys or anecdotes, it gives unusual authority to a claim often dismissed as merely sentimental, making a rigorous case for treating relationships as a health intervention rather than a soft afterthought.

Who should read it

Anyone reassessing their priorities around career, family, or aging, especially readers drawn to research-backed rather than purely inspirational self-help. It also suits people supporting aging parents or navigating midlife relationship changes.

About the author

Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development; Marc Schulz is the study's associate director and a clinical psychologist.