FTI: Happiness, Habits, and Science: What Positive Psychology Gets Right

Positive psychology is often associated with ideas like happiness, gratitude, and “living your best life.” But what does the actual research say—and how useful is it in real life?

In this event, we’ll explore the field of positive psychology from a grounded, practical perspective:

• What is positive psychology, and how is it different from traditional psychology?
• What does the research say about happiness, meaning, and well-being?
• Which practices (if any) actually improve people’s lives?
• Where does the field fall short or get oversimplified?

This is not about feel-good slogans. It’s about understanding what holds up under scrutiny—and what we can realistically apply.

Expect a thoughtful, open discussion focused on evidence, lived experience, and honest reflection.

A little about our host:
Garrett is a programmer turned award-winning software inventor turned entrepreneur ([PlateRate.com](http://platerate.com/) is his company). His hobby is writing and discussing practical philosophy, and he does life coaching on request to help people live happy, moral lives. He is also the executive director of The Free Thinker Institute ([FreeThinkerInstitute.org](http://freethinkerinstitute.org/)), which aims to create a community that helps members increase happiness and decrease harm for themselves and those they can influence.

Format:
Lecture and discussion

Note:
Social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.
To get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zg
After registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.

Here’s our legal notice:
For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.