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The Algorithm of Happiness

Edmund
By Edmund Adu Asamoah October 10 2025 • 4 min read
Sunrise light over calm landscape
Happiness isn’t a mood. It’s a system you can design.

If happiness were a model, most of us are overfitting to highlights and underweighting the boring features that matter. No, you don’t need a new life. You need better defaults.

Here’s my simple algorithm: tune daily inputs, set sane weights, reduce noise, and close the loop with feedback you actually feel. It’s not magic, it’s design.

Daily inputs
5–9
Micro‑moments
≥ 3/day
Social weight
High
Sleep coeff.
1.3×

Don’t chase highs. Raise your baseline. Tiny, repeatable inputs beat occasional fireworks.

Define the objective function

Happiness, for me, optimizes for energy, connection, and meaning. If a day scores high on those three, I don’t need perfect. Decide your variables before life decides them for you.

1) Tune the inputs (daily features)

  • Body: consistent sleep window, morning light, hydration routine.
  • Mind: one deep‑work block, one screen‑free block.
  • Social: one honest message, one small kindness.

2) Set sane weights

  • Weight sleep and relationships higher than inbox zero. Future‑you agrees.
  • Down‑weight doomscrolling and late‑night caffeine. Predictable loss.

3) Reduce noise (remove confounders)

  • Notifications off by default. Let people through; mute apps.
  • Plan tomorrow the night before. Fewer morning branches to explore.

4) Close the loop (feedback)

  • End‑of‑day check: energy / connection / meaning (0–2 each). Adjust inputs tomorrow.
  • Keep a “joy log” - 3 lines max. Patterns appear fast.
Friends laughing together outdoors Sunlight filtering through forest trees

Defaults that lift your baseline

  • Morning light before phone light.
  • One thing that moves your body; one thing that moves your life.
  • Reach out before you retreat.
  • Protect sleep like a meeting with your future self.

Happiness is mostly plumbing: when the system is well‑designed, good days flow by default.

Micro playbook: baseline boosters

  • Write 1 line, daily: Open a note and add one sentence you’ll be glad to read next week.
  • Send 1 genuine message: Thank someone, check in, or reply properly to a pending chat.
  • Tidy 1 surface: Desk, kitchen counter, or home screen. Clarity is a mood.
  • Step into light: Two minutes by a window or outside. Signal daytime to your brain.
  • Plan tomorrow tonight: One bullet for the big thing, one for the easy win.

Pick one and run it for 3 days. After that, you won’t need motivation , just the next rep.

Ship joy on purpose

Pick one input to tune this week : light, sleep, focus, or connection and watch the curve bend.

  • Lay out one thing you need for tomorrow’s rep.
  • Schedule a 10‑minute block on your calendar. Guard it.
  • Track it with one checkbox. That’s enough.
Tell me your first step Work with me
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