You need others in a sense that you need to be part of a community—there’s a reason we reflexively pity hermits. Regardless of your theory of anthropogenesis, it’s hard to deny that we are built for community, and that ‘we’ is always more than ‘me.’ 

However, you don’t need another person t...

Define what wealth and happiness mean to you, in your own terms. 

If we don’t, society will for us — and we will always fall short. We’ll always be left wanting. We’ll always be stuck comparing ourselves and competing with other people.

The problem is if we consider happiness to be some complex product of many factors, in the long run, we’ll start valuing those factors over happiness itself.

As a smart person, you probably don’t believe in coincidence, and so, maybe, you should start believing in this: You can be smart...