Hi there,

Happy Saturday! I hope you had an absolutely fantastic week 🥰

Thank you for being part of the Presently Reading community with 2,314 bookworms from around the world.

Today, we'll be wrapping up The Courage to Be Disliked.

​For the month of July 2025, we're reading ​Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World​ by Anne-Laure Le Cunff.​

Enjoy!

Warmly,
Maneet (pronounced muh-neet)

Weekly Bookmark

I’ve always had a hard time just sitting still.

Looking back, it’s not just about being restless, it’s because I genuinely love doing things that feel meaningful. Whether it’s making YouTube videos, writing this newsletter, filming Sikh events, or even getting nerdy with random tech projects, I’m happiest when I’m creating, building, or contributing to something. Until I read The Courage to Be Disliked, though, I never quite realized why.

The book put it perfectly:

“In a word, happiness is the feeling of contribution.”

That definition hit me way harder than I expected. We often think of happiness as pleasure, success, or freedom. But contribution? That was a novel idea for me. It explained so much of my natural behavior. I feel happiest when I’m part of something bigger than myself.

And contribution doesn’t just mean doing acts of service or building things.

Even simply existing is a form of contribution to the people who love you. Think about your family, your partner, your closest friends. Your presence alone brings joy and connection to their lives. That perspective really expanded how I think about what it means to “contribute.”

It also helped me understand why meaningless work feels so draining.

When we don’t see how our efforts contribute to something real, it’s almost impossible to feel happy doing it. That realization has been a huge part of why I’m transitioning careers right now. I want to be a therapist because I want my work to matter to people’s lives, to truly contribute in a way that feels fulfilling.

Finding a community where you can contribute makes all the difference.

Whether it’s a workplace, a group of friends, or a creative project, happiness comes from feeling needed, appreciated, and connected. When you find your tribe, a group where your contributions matter, you feel rooted in a way that’s hard to explain but impossible to miss.

Discussion Highlight

Every week, I'll select a comment from our community discussions and highlight it in the following week's email.

Last week, our discussion question was: Are there any relationships in your life that you’ve practiced unconditional confidence with? Do you find it easy to see everyone around you as a horizontal relationship?

Alan shared:

Want to be featured in a future email? Participate in today's discussion over on Patreon (free, just create an account) and I'll select one every week!

My Favorite Things This Week

🎶 Music Playlist: I grew up playing a game called RuneScape, which has an iconic soundtrack. I discovered this Spotify playlist this week of RuneScape-inspired Lo-Fi tracks. I've been listening to it all week while working.

😢 Netflix Series: My wife and I watched the Gone Girls Netflix series this week. It's a well-produced documentary series that follows the investigation into finding a serial killer. It's sad to watch, but important. Surprisingly, this was the first time I heard about any of this, even though I visit Long Island all the time and live nearby.