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Comment by dejb | Hacker News Reader

What would make me happy is to read articles that start of with a good summary of the answer to the question they pose in the title. That way I can know whether it is worth investing the time into reading the rest of it.

Articles that force you to read someone's life storey before getting to the point don't make me happy.

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To be fair, the article is about Valiant the person almost as much it is about his research, though the title is a bit misleading.

Anyway, I read it a few months back and this is the part that still sticks with me:

Vaillant was asked, "What have you learned from the Grant Study men?" Vaillant’s response: "That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people."

So do you think it is reasonable to have to read through 4 pages of an article just to find out that isn't really about what the title said? I understand that a lot of people enjoyed the article but does that make this deception excusable?

You might like Bertrand Russell's 1930 _The Conquest of Happiness_. At least if you're the target audience:

"I shall confine my attention to those who are not subject to any extreme cause of outward misery. I shall assume a sufficient income to secure food and shelter, sufficient health to make ordinary bodily activities possible... My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day unhappiness from which most people in civilised countries suffer." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell#Conquest_of_Ha...

Well this is an article about life stories so tough luck. The study had some conclusions which could be drawn out without understanding the life stories, but they're nothing you haven't heard before. The point of this article really was the life stories themselves.

I feel your pain. Most articles on the Internet could use a summary to help the reader make a decision about whether they're worth reading. Most of them would also be a lot better if they just got to their point. And skipped the other stuff.

But this article is very hard to summarize. And it wanders. It's also quite good.

I really, really enjoyed that piece, and was pleasantly surprised after the generic title. If someone has the time, it's an interesting narrative with interesting points backed by data.

But for a busier person, they could start at the meat of it, with the numbers. You'd miss the enjoyable narrative and backstory, but get the important details. Link to page 3 of 4, it'll make sense stand-alone but do go back if you enjoy it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness/3

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