I had an amazing introduction to the whole self-help thing. I’d never really even heard of it. Yet, while reading an introduction to neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) book, I felt like I was having revelation after revelation.

它真的感觉很神奇。

我从人生的低谷中走出来，我会致力于让自己成为一个更好的人。我一直致力于直到我最终成为一个自信、快乐的人。

It continued for years. I found more books from all sorts of angles. More self-help. I learned about all kinds of therapy. Things really felt like they were changing.

…

我们可以花太长时间去思考我们的缺点。我花了二十年时间在我的身上。自助行业的大部分工作都是帮助我们摆脱这些缺陷（或者给我们这种错觉），这样我们在他们离开后会更快乐。

But what if they weren’t just flaws at all? What if they come with a plus side we’ve never considered?

What if the things we hate about ourselves are the same things that make others like us?

小说和剧本写作的一个重要教训就是这样。我们写人物不完美，以吸引读者或观众…

MENTAL HEALTH

I was halfway through a producing a six-week film shoot, and I felt like I was falling apart. It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done. I was hiding in the bathroom with wet eyes, working out how to get the strength to get back out there and get things done.

然后我意识到。从数学上说，我几乎在任何方面都很好。我很快感觉好多了——好得可以走出浴室回到正轨。你仍然可以在沃尔玛的廉价品箱里找到那部可怕电影的DVD…

I have a ridiculous memory of my Ayahuasca journey, watching one of the guides walk around the room without a head. His long neck just rounded off smoothly at the top.

There was another crazy moment where, as the solitary English-only speaker there, a guide forgot and spoke to me in Dutch. Under the psychedelic influence, she sounded like she was speaking something more like Elvish from Lord of the Rings, complete with magical sound effects.

But the guides, when they did have heads and weren’t speaking in tongues, were incredible. They made me feel very safe in my first…

The Crown Court, 2014

As the trial reached a critical moment, I ducked down, giggling, behind the man in front of me. I was failing to hide my laughter from the packed court, managing to keep my head low, but not the volume. The people who sat with me were holding back giggles too, but because laughter is contagious, they couldn’t hold it in either. The judge couldn’t help but notice us – the giggling jury – bouncing around on the benches. Hearing adjourned.

在一名男子被划桨打死的袭击者的审判中，我当时…

我会搞砸的。我几乎在沙发上流泪，不知该怎么办。每个人都恨我。很久以前，我甚至记不起我做了什么。但我能准确地记得接下来发生了什么。

A friend sat next to me and said one sentence:

“你知道每个人都爱你，对吧？”

等等，什么？我的思路被从轨道上拉下来，就这样，一切都感觉好了。我内心的声音创造了一个叙事，坚持下去，从没有任何东西中找到证据，我花了一天时间来寻找它。所有…

This isn’t a list of books about happiness, but a list of books about an array of other things, that somehow led me to happiness. Happiness can come from the most unexpected places.

下面是我列出的七本让我更快乐的好书，还有一些教训和见解，也许也能帮到你。

1漫画工具箱——约翰·沃豪斯

这本书关于创作喜剧的标语说：怎么搞笑，即使你不“但是这本关于幽默写作的书在一系列创造幸福的书上做了什么呢？”？嗯，就是这样：

喜剧不是一个…

Have you found yourself being particularly polite to Siri recently? Had an argument with Alexa but then apologised and made up? Well, it seems that under the stress of the pandemic, we’re going that way. Kindness is on the rise. Even to machines.

研究人员looking at the link between Covid and kindness selected participants who had been affected by the disease, and got them to play something called独裁者的游戏, a popular game you’ll find in studies about kindness and altruism. …