Anton Savage: Happiness, and how to hold on to it

It turns out that it’s not having money that makes us happy (although it helps), but forging close bonds with friends and family brings us most satisfaction

The pursuit of happiness: something about the expectation of pleasure and the focus on the future brings brightness and lustre to the soul

This week, I dedicated hours upon hours to being put on hold, ignored, hung-up on and patronised. And it was wonderful. A joy. Bliss. I haven’t had that much fun in ages.

I was trying to complete an airline booking. Over the years, the airlines have honed their Kafkaesque bureaucracy into an art form. Artificial Intelligence, leading to chat-bot, leading to disengaged (and regularly disconnected) humans. Hundreds of layers of IT and HR dedicated to ...