Harvard tracked 724 men for 75+ years.

They measured success, health, wealth, fame, and happiness.

One factor predicted happiness better than anything else.

And it wasn't money, fame, or achievement.

The longest study on happiness ever conducted reveals the truth 🧵 1938: Harvard begins an unprecedented experiment.

They select 268 sophomores and 456 Boston teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Their mission: Track these men for their entire lives.

Measure everything about them.

Find what truly creates happiness.

The most stubborn price in American history:
 
Costco's $1.50 hot dog hasn't changed since 1984.
 
Not during recessions.
Not during inflation.
Not despite 100M+ sold yearly.
 
The extraordinary lengths they go to keep this promise 🧵 When Costco opened, they added a food court with a simple offer:
 
Quarter-pound hot dog + 20oz soda for $1.50.
 
Little did anyone know this humble meal would become the most sacred price in retail history.

"Even shoeshine boys are giving stock tips."

With these words, Joe Kennedy sold everything.

3 weeks later, the market crashed 90%.

He became one of America's richest men while others jumped from windows.

The eerie warning sign that saved the Kennedy fortune 🧵 February 1929: The market is soaring.

Everyone is getting rich. Taxi drivers buy stocks on margin. Housewives form investment clubs. America has "conquered poverty."

Joe Kennedy is making millions.

But then something strange happens...

The worst business decision in history:

A man sold his 10% of Apple for $800.

Today, that stake would be worth $320,000,000,000.

He lives on social security in a small Nevada home.

The forgotten third founder who walked away from everything 🧵 April 1, 1976: In a California garage, three men start Apple:

Jobs: The visionary with no money
Wozniak: The genius with no business sense
Wayne: The adult with everything to lose

One would become the forgotten founder.

A Harvard sophomore gets dumped by his girlfriend.

That night, he hacks into university databases and creates a site rating students' attractiveness.

Today, that angry project is worth $1.2 trillion.

The true story of Facebook's birth and the friendships destroyed along the way 🧵 October 2003: Mark Zuckerberg is a socially awkward Harvard sophomore.

After getting dumped, he creates "Facemash" - comparing students' photos side by side.

"Who's hotter?" the site asks.

Harvard's servers crash from traffic.

The FBI's most valuable Hollywood informant wasn't an agent.

It was Walt Disney.

For 26 years, the creator of Mickey Mouse secretly reported to J. Edgar Hoover.

Here's the classified story 🧵 December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor is attacked.

December 8: U.S. Army moves into Disney Studios.

Walt's animators are reassigned to create military training films.

Mickey Mouse joins the war effort.

The Marshmallow Test is one of psychology's most famous experiments.

Kids were given a choice: eat one marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes for two.

Those who waited supposedly succeeded more in life.

But 50 years later, we've discovered it was all wrong.

Here's why 🧵 In the 1960s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel tested hundreds of children ages 3-5 at the university's preschool.

The setup was simple but brilliant:

- Child sits at table
- Researcher places one marshmallow in front
- Child can eat it now or wait for two

He's read 5000+ books but doesn't finish 99% of them.

The counterintuitive reading strategy that's made Naval one of the smartest thinkers alive - and why traditional reading advice is wrong.

Here's his exact method 🧵 Most people approach reading like school taught us:

- Start at page 1
- Read every word
- Finish the book
- Feel guilty about unfinished books

Naval believes this approach is completely backward.

80,000 secret JFK assassination files just dropped.

For 60 years, the CIA fought to keep them hidden.

Now we finally know why.

These documents reveal what really happened in Dallas - and it wasn't a "lone gunman.

🧵 Five months before Kennedy was shot, something unbelievable happened:

A man walked into the American embassy in Bulgaria with a warning:

"Lee Harvey Oswald is planning to kill President Kennedy in Dallas."

The warning was ignored.

Harvard discovered something shocking:

Your willpower is a lie.

Science proves what you've felt all along:

Discipline isn't what's holding you back.

Here's why 92% of resolutions fail, and the psychological hack that actually works: 🧵 Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck was obsessed with one question:

Why do some people give up while others persist?

The answer wasn't what anyone expected.

A Toyota factory worker noticed a small problem on the assembly line.

His solution saved the company $100M.

Now Google, Amazon, and Apple use his method.

The untold story of how a simple idea revolutionized modern business: 🧵 1950s Japan:

Toyota was struggling.

American car companies dominated.

Something had to change.

A production line worker named Taiichi Ohno had an idea so radical his managers laughed at him.

Japan's 100-year-old people share ONE habit.

It's not diet or exercise.

It's not green tea or meditation.

They've mastered something we've completely forgotten.

Here's what 'The Land of Immortals' knows that we don't: 🧵 First, the numbers are staggering:

Japan has 90,000+ centenarians.

That's people over 100 years old.

More than any country on Earth.

But here's what scientists found strange...

The $250 million tweet:

In 2018, Kylie Jenner wrote 18 words about Snapchat.

Their stock crashed 7% in minutes.

Here's the untold story of how one tweet destroyed billions in value: 🧵 February 21, 2018.

Kylie opens Twitter.

Types: 'sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad'

Seems harmless.

But Wall Street was watching.

3 years into Tesla's production, they hit a crisis.

Model S production was 3x slower than planned.

Costs were exploding.

Musk gathered his executives expecting a typical CEO reaction:

Panic, blame, fire someone.

Instead, he sent one email that changed everything: 🧵 The email contained just five paragraphs.

No MBA jargon. No complex workflows.

Just five paragraphs that solved a problem threatening Tesla's existence.

The technique he used is called "first principles thinking."

Here's how it works:

In 2004, Amazon executives entered a meeting room carrying PowerPoint decks.

Jeff Bezos stood up and announced:

"PowerPoint is banned from this company effective immediately."

Here's the story of how one of the world's most valuable companies makes decisions: 🧵 Before the ban, Amazon meetings followed a familiar pattern:

• Presenter shows bullet points
• Executives interrupt with questions
• Tangents derail the conversation
• Half the room checks email
• No clear decisions made

Sound familiar?

Everyone said Uber was unbeatable.

Then a 19-year-old Estonian kid with no driver's license built a $10B competitor.

With just $5K from his parents.

The wild story of Markus Villig & Bolt: 🧵 From age 10, Markus was hustling:

• Building websites for local companies
• Selling Legos in kindergarten
• Trading collectibles at school

While others dreamed of being astronauts, he knew he'd build tech companies.

In 1994, a vitamin company accidentally leaked internal documents:

'If they knew what's in these pills, we'd lose billions.'

Today, that document was proven right.

Here's the industry's darkest secret: 🧵 The vitamin industry has a dark truth:

92% of supplements are synthetic.

Made in labs, not nature.

Chemically identical, but fundamentally different.

Your body knows the difference.

In 1995, a broke IT worker made a deal with his bank:

'Give me £10,000 for my son's racing, or I'll lose everything.'

The bank said no.

So he worked 3 jobs for 10 years straight.

Today, his son, Lewis Hamilton is worth $285M.

Here's the untold story: 🧵 4 AM: Anthony Hamilton starts his IT job.
5 PM: Second shift begins.
10 PM: Third job ends.
11 PM: Fixes his son's kart.

Not for a week.
Not for a month.
For 10 years straight.

In 2021, Ryanair was losing €20M per day.

- Customers hated them.
- Their reputation was in shambles.

Then they made the CRAZIEST marketing decision ever:

'Let's become professional Twitter trolls'

Today, they're Europe's most valuable airline. Here's the insane story 🧵 First, some context:

Ryanair was known as the 'most hated airline':

• Terrible customer service
• Hidden fees
• Negative press coverage
• CEO called customers 'idiots'

Their marketing team had a wild idea...

They're watching you cry:

Instagram knows when you're depressed.

TikTok tracks your attention span.

YouTube maps your desires.

And they're selling this data to advertisers.

The dark psychology of social media they don't want you to know: 🧵 2017: Facebook's internal research leaked.

They could predict depression 2 weeks before clinical diagnosis.

How?

By tracking typing speed, time between posts, and color choices in photos.

Gen Z will be the richest generation ever.

But they're the most depressed.

I've studied the data.

Here's what's really happening: 🧵 By 2030, Gen Z will inherit $68 trillion.

The largest wealth transfer in history.

Yet 54% report chronic anxiety.

46% are clinically depressed.

Something isn't adding up.