The meaning of life? Famously 42, according to a supercomputer asked “the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything” in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But what’s the shape of life? A “U”. It appears our self-reported happiness or wellbeing is highest as children and older adults, with a massive slump in middle age. That slump goes on getting worse from age 30 until our late 50s, so calling it a midlife crisis is way too........

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