42 courses.

I think it's pretty natural that for my 42nd blog post, I would feature 42 courses.

During my six-week sabbatical last year, I discovered 42Courses, an online learning platform that packages big ideas from behavioral science, advertising, business, and beyond into digestible courses.

The name is a nod to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where 42 is famously the answer to life, the universe, and everything. And after working through their material, I'm starting to think they might be onto something.

We're Not as Rational as We Think

Traditional economics treated humans like calculators. Plug in the numbers, get the logical output. But behavioral science tells a different story. Our brains are fundamentally lazy, preferring emotion and mental shortcuts over careful analysis. This isn't a bug—it's how we're wired.

David Ogilvy nailed it decades ago:

people don't think what they feel, don't say what they think, and don't do what they say.

Once you understand this, you start seeing it everywhere. Why we panic-sell investments. Why do we scroll social media instead of doing important work? Why "limited time only" offers work so well on us.

The gap between what we should do and what we actually do costs investors about 3% annually. That's not a small leak—it's a flood.

The Real Secret to Great Advertising

In 1958, Ogilvy wrote an ad for Rolls-Royce that didn't mention horsepower or engineering specs. The headline simply said the loudest noise at 60 miles per hour came from the electric clock. That's the difference between listing features and connecting with human truth.

Apple understood this when they marketed the iPod. They didn't say "5GB hard drive." They said "1000 songs in your pocket." Same product, completely different impact.

The best brands don't just sell products. They become part of our emotional landscape. And sometimes the smartest move is doing the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing. Look at Liquid Death—a water brand with a heavy metal persona in a category defined by purity and serenity. They broke every convention and won.

Building Companies That Actually Work

The most resilient businesses don't just optimize old models. They create environments where brilliant people can thrive.

Ed Catmull from Pixar put it perfectly: give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they'll screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, and they'll either fix it or come up with something better. The lesson? Invest in people, not just processes.

True motivation doesn't come from carrots and sticks. It comes from autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Give people control over their work, opportunities to improve, and connection to something bigger than themselves. That's when you unlock genuine engagement.

Engineering a Happier Life

Here's something that surprised me: happiness follows a U-curve. People tend to be happier when young and old, with a dip around ages 35 to 45. If you're in that middle stretch feeling stuck, take heart. For many people, the best years are still ahead.

Research consistently shows that experiences make us happier than things. Travel beats designer clothes. Concerts beat gold bars. Memories, not possessions, measure a well-lived life.

Palliative nurse Bronnie Ware found that one of the most common regrets people express in their final days is that they wish they'd lived true to themselves instead of meeting others' expectations. That's a lesson worth learning now, not later.

Designing a Better World

For 250 years, we've run on a simple model: take resources, make products, create waste. The circular economy offers a different vision—keeping products and materials in use as long as possible while regenerating natural systems. It's not about recycling more at the end. It's about redesigning the entire system from the beginning.

Brands with genuine purpose are outgrowing their peers. Consumers are voting with their wallets for companies that align with their values. Purpose isn't just nice to have anymore.

The Patterns That Shape Everything

What struck me most is how everything connects. The biases that guide our decisions. The stories that shape our cultures. The systems that define our future. Once you see these patterns, you can't unsee them. And patterns you can see are patterns you can redesign.

I view 42Courses as edutainment—educational entertainment that makes big ideas genuinely fun to explore. If you're curious about why we think the way we do, how great brands are built, or what makes people and companies thrive, check out 42courses.com. You'll never guess which celebrity tops their global leaderboard, found at the bottom of their website.

Douglas Adams may have been joking about 42 being the answer to everything. But this might be the closest thing I've found.