The Backwards Law: Stop Chasing Happiness. Become Anti-fragile Instead. | Gad Saad

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This episode is sponsored by Viome. As a special offer to my viewers, Viome is offering $110 off your test. Go to and use code IMPACT to save.

I hope you’re ready for another enlightening episode of Impact Theory, where we’re exposing the surprisingly controversial paths to happiness. Today, we feature the brilliantly unconventional evolutionary behavioral scientist, Gad Saad, a renowned author, YouTuber, and award-winning professor who asserts that happiness is not a destination, but a byproduct of specific behaviors.

In this thought-provoking episode, Gad reveals the dangerous yet rewarding pursuit of truth and authenticity, which has resulted even in death threats. He delves into why being anti-fragile, and pursuing truth and authenticity are key to the Saad truth about happiness. We also dig into the importance of intellectual variety, and expose why a non-fragmented personality can better handle opposing views and challenging ideas.

“The only road to individual dignity and sustained existential happiness is to adopt an ethos of personal agency. You are the ultimate architect of your own happiness, so get to work.”

-Gad Saad

After watching this episode, you'll be equipped with a fresh perspective, understand the true nature of happiness, and will hopefully be inspired to foster an anti-fragile mindset. Discover why your ability to solve novel problems is more than critical, why apologies can sometimes be an attack on your identity, and so much more. Don't miss out on this riveting conversation with the ever-authentic and truthfully controversial Gad Saad!

Check out Gad’s latest book, The Saad Truth About Happiness, 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life

Saad Truths:

“It's very very difficult for me to not be authentic if I need to defend some truth claim, [...] so the death threats come from the fact that I have to decide, am I going to be a fanatic and walk away from a defense of truth, or am I going to be authentic not only to myself, but to truth by stepping on some toes? And regrettably, at times I step on the wrong toes, which yields some death threats.”

“Don't worry about taking a statin to lower your LDL scores. Make sure that you have two, three, four friends that you really trust and love and you can engage in reciprocal rituals with.”

“I don't think you can solve some of the most important novel problems if they're not at the cusp of interdisciplinary.”

“Having a conciliate mindset, being a generalist, in my view, are probably the best ways to crack novel problems.”

“Groups that are religious out survive groups that are not religious through the mechanisms of greater cooperation communality cohesion. So they are very earthly biological reasons for why religiosity confers greater survival rates to the religious than the non-religious.”

“The justification for why you should have a punitive progressive tax is that as you make more money, you pay more and more inexorably very aware of it. Exactly. So that argument stems from exactly of the things that I talk about in the parasitic mind, which is the confusing of equality of opportunities with equality of outcomes.”

“I think that if you can crack those two things in whatever profession you choose, creativity, impulse, temporal freedom, you're well on your way to being happy.”

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