A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ BOOK • From one of our foremost psychologists a trailblazing
book that turns the idea of a good life on its head and urges us to embrace the transformative
power of variety and experience • The guidebook to the pyshologically rich life “Dr. Oishi’s
enthusiasm for a big and bold existence is infectious” — The Wall Street Journal "Life in
Three Dimensions will give you new insights into the many ways to live well including advice
on how to pick the one most likely to be right for you." —Jonathan Haidt author of The Anxious
Generation Shigehiro Oishi's father has lived his entire life in a small mountain town in
Japan. But as a young man Oishi felt compelled to follow a winding road that led him far from
home. He became an award-winning psychology professor seeking to know which path—to stay or to
go the familiar or the unknown his father’s path or his own—is the better path to a good
life. In Life in Three Dimensions Oishi shares his journey of discovery and offers readers a
groundbreaking new understanding of happiness. What makes for a good life he asks? Is it the
simple predictable pleasures we call happiness? Or can happiness lead to complacency and
regret? Is the answer a deep sense of meaning and purpose? Or can a life of purpose invite
narrow or misplaced loyalties? Both happiness and meaning as paths to a good life have decades
of scientific research to support them. But in recent years Oishi has uncovered a third
dimension to a good life psychological richness . A psychologically rich life prioritizes
curiosity exploration and a variety of experiences. These can be as simple as taking a walk
as complex as moving to a new country. Key to a psychologically rich experience is a shift in
perspective that helps us grow. Life in Three Dimensions explores lives defined by
psychological richness: those of prominent people like Steve Jobs Oliver Sacks and Alison
Gopnik characters from literature and film and ordinary people who--in college at midlife
and beyond--embraced uncertainty and challenge to deepen and enrich their lives. In this wise
and delightful book Oishi shows how anyone at any age can build a fuller more authentic life.
