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spiritual issues and thinking I could best help the world from the pulpit. But an influential acting teacher told me to follow my bliss, and I ended up going to New York City in 1992. (As it turns out, my mom wound up becoming a pastor.) Iwas a professional actor for more than fifteen years, appearing in principal roles on Broadway, on TV, and in film. During my time as an actor, I did a lot of corporate videos and started getting asked to rewrite scripts to make them funnier. I said, “Yes, if you pay me,” and my writing career was born.
    After multiple scripts, articles, and books, I landed a job writing the first About.com Guide to Podcasting in 2005 before social media became mainstream. I interviewed hundreds of thought leaders in business and technology before shifting to consulting to leverage my expertise toward business development for a few start-ups, like Blog Talk Radio. I ran two open-source tech conferences in New York City (two thousand participants, over two hundred speakers) and eventually ran the social media practice of a top-ten global PR firm. It was at that time my business career got two giant boosts—I became a contributing writer for Mashable.com, and traditionally published my first book, Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build Their Brand (Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass/John Wiley, 2008).
    My primary expertise is in technology, having helped a number of great clients over the years, including Gillette, HP, and Merck, interpret how their brands were perceived online to build relevant engagement with consumers. At Mashable, I’ve interviewed hundreds of thought leaders from companies like Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Starbucks, Weight Watchers, AT&T, Verizon, and dozens of start-ups.
    So in many ways I get paid to observe. As an actor, you observe human behavior to portray characters as real people. As a nonfiction writer, you observe trends to see how they’ll affect culture. In my case, it was examining the technology and economic trends I wrote about in my Mashable piece “The Value of a Happiness Economy,” which led to the writing of this book and the formation of the H(app)athon Project, a nonprofit organization “Connecting Happiness to Action” by creating sensor-based smartphone surveysutilizing economic indicators to increase civic engagement and well-being.
    Thank You
    Your time is precious, the most valuable resource someone can offer. I genuinely appreciate your devoting some of it to reading Hacking H(app)iness . I’ve done my best to provide sound value in exchange.
    I gave you a bit of my background to demonstrate why I believe it’s essential to live an examined life, and how much of my career has been spent in teaching people how technology can improve theirs.
    I believe in the inalienable right of dignity for your data. Data is the proxy for your identity, a mark of your citizenship and humanity visible to the world. It’s what makes you count.
    In this sense, Hacking H(app)iness is about life, liberty, and the transformation of pursuit. The pursuit is what leads to the happiness. Identifying what brings you meaning and purpose and connecting to others is how to increase your well-being. This process can be expedited through revolutionary new mobile and digital tools, but not without personal reflection. And not without becoming accountable about your data and identity in the digital world.
    So I invite you to reflect. And note—I’m not here to tell you how to be happy.
    I’m here to prove you’re worth the effort.

[PART]
    1
    Be Accountable
    IDENTITY AND MEASUREMENT IN THE CONNECTED WORLD
    NEVER CONFUSE MOVEMENT WITH ACTION.
    —Ernest Hemingway

  1  
    YOUR IDENTITY IN THE CONNECTED WORLD
I have preserved my identity, put its credibility to the test, and defended my dignity. What good this will bring the world I don’t know. But for me it is good.
VÁCLAV HAVEL
    T HE “ C ONNECTED W ORLD” has three meanings in