God bless the author and his bemused introduction to a motivation seminar. He is consistently open to different viewpoints without being dogmatic or cynical, yet even he has a breaking point, and this is it. The rest of the book is a reflection of sorts on the wisdom of the ancients -- stoics and Buddhists gets a look in, as does Tolle, but he tries his best to range as far a field as possible, even going to a notoriously dangerous part of Africa to find out why the people there are just as happy with nothing as fat, privileged westerners.

I like this book unreservedly, which is unusual. I wish he had written a bit more about some of the contradictions involved (certainly Watts and the Xen a enter have some skeletons in their closets) but overall this is a solid piece of work.