The hunt for happiness...and the tiny metal America can't live without

For most of my life, I wasn’t particularly happy.

I wasn’t depressed.

But I was restless.

Always hunting for happiness like it was some prize you unlocked once you hit the right net worth or bank account balance.

I thought if I worked hard enough, built the businesses, stacked the money, then surely, eventually, I’d arrive at happiness.

But that wasn’t the case, of course.

Even now, I can’t fully say I’ve arrived.

But I’ve made progress.

That progress has come from practices and daily choices that slowly build a different kind of wealth, the kind you feel in your bones and carry into every part of life.

The kind Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor who has studied happiness for decades, breaks down into four pillars: faith, family, community, and meaningful work.

Notice the order.

Meaningful work is fourth. Like me, most people, including you, probably put it first.

It’s easy to believe that if you just worked harder or achieved more, the rest would fall into place.

But the truth is, when work comes before faith, family, and community, the balance is off and you feel it. The challenge, and the invitation, is to flip that script and see what happens when you reorder your life around what really sustains happiness.

Brooks also talks about the three “macronutrients” of happiness. Think of them like fuel sources:

1. Enjoyment

   Not the fleeting rush of a purchase, but real enjoyment—the kind that requires effort and memory. Dinner with friends. Laughter with your kids. Moments you can relive later, turning ordinary pleasure into something higher.
   

2. Satisfaction

   The joy you only get after a struggle. The win that tastes sweeter because it was hard-won.
   

3. Meaning

   The heaviest and most important. The sense that your life matters, that you’re resilient, that you’re living for something beyond yourself.

Brooks argues happiness is less about chasing milestones and more about structuring your days so these nutrients show up again and again.

Here’s how he does it:

• Wake up before sunrise to reset the brain and boost mood.

• Exercise daily—an hour of zone 2 cardio, phone-free, to lower stress and flood the brain with growth factors.

• Faith or meditation to quiet the ego and anchor the present.

• High-protein meals to fuel focus.

• Deep work in distraction-free blocks.

• Evenings reserved for family dinners, laughter, and long walks.

At 61, Brooks doesn’t credit his well-being to hacks or productivity tricks.

He credits his relationships. More than three decades of marriage. Close friendships. Time with kids and grandkids. The ordinary, daily presence of loved ones.

That struck me.

Because when I look back, the happiest moments of my life weren’t the biggest paydays. They weren’t the deals that padded my balance sheet. They were moments at the dinner table with my kids or lazy afternoons with friends and family when no one was rushing to be anywhere else.

That’s why, in recent months, I’ve told Moonshot Minute readers that I’d be taking time off to be with family. As much as I love writing these essays, I’ve found I’m happier when I’m not constantly grinding.

And I’ve also built some daily practices of my own that have changed how I experience happiness:

My Daily Practices

Capturing memories.

Almost every day I take pictures of things and people I’m enjoying.

I started doing this years ago when I realized Facebook’s “On This Day” feature let me relive old posts.

Now, Apple Photos (I’m sure Android does it as well) does the same thing.

By engineering the habit of taking photos or short videos, I’ve given myself a guaranteed stream of moments I’ll get to relive years later.

I’ve found this practice pays dividends forever.

Even better, those resurfaced memories keep me connected to friends and family because almost daily, a picture pops up that gives me a reason to text or call someone just to say, remember this?

I can’t tell you how delighted everyone is when those messages come through.

Walking with purpose.

Six days a week, I walk for an hour and fifteen minutes at a fast clip. Not a jog, not a stroll… It’s either cardio zone 2, sometimes into zone 3.

It’s physical, but it’s also mental.

Unlike Brooks, I do listen to something during this time but it’s always an audiobook, never podcasts or talk shows.

It’s become one of my most consistent ways to learn, reflect, and stay fit without burning out.

Journaling.

Every morning after waking up, and every night before bed, I journal.

I use an app called Day One, but it could be pen and paper.

I follow a loose method called 750 Words, where basically, I write freely, without structure, until the words run out.

I don’t edit.

I don’t censor.

It’s a purge and a reflection all at once. And I do it religiously.

These three practices—paired with the pillars and macronutrients Brooks talks about—have rewired how I experience happiness.

The point is this: Happiness is not waiting for you in retirement. It’s not waiting for you at “the number.”

It’s built day by day. In how you rise with the sun.

In what you feed your body and your mind. In how you work, with focus. And in how you end each evening… with the people you love.

Happiness is an investment. And like any investment, the earlier you start, the greater the compounding returns.

And speaking of compounding returns...

From Happiness to Hard Assets

The same principle applies to wealth.

Recognizing overlooked truths and acting on them early is how you build compounding advantage in your financial life.

Take rare-earth permanent magnets.

These small, unassuming blocks of metal determine whether America can compete in the next wave of technology or fall permanently behind.

Made from neodymium, iron, and boron (NdFeB), they generate a magnetic force so powerful that a coin-sized magnet can lift hundreds, and in ideal setups, close to a thousand times its own weight.

That kind of strength allows engineers to shrink motors, extend battery life, and push performance far beyond what alternatives can deliver.

And that’s why they’ve become the hidden backbone of modern life:

• Every electric vehicle requires 1–2 kilograms of these magnets just to spin its wheels. With tens of millions of EVs sold globally each year, the demand quickly runs into the tens of thousands of tons.
  

• Modern offshore wind turbines can each contain several tonnes of magnets in their generators. Multiply that by a full wind farm of hundreds of turbines, and you’re talking about thousands of tonnes locked up in a single project.
  

• Every drone—military or commercial—relies on them for propulsion. Each uses only grams, but scale that across the millions of drones expected in coming years, and the numbers climb fast.
  

• Every AI data center is quietly swallowing them. Each nearline hard drive needs two magnets. Western Digital shipped 170 exabytes of nearline storage last quarter alone—millions of drives, millions of magnets, most of them heading straight into hyperscaler data centers.

Now here’s the uncomfortable truth: China controls about 90% of global supply.

That dominance didn’t happen overnight. While the U.S. was outsourcing, China built the mines, the refineries, the expertise, and the factories. Today, America produces less than 0.5% of China’s output.

Meanwhile, U.S. demand is exploding:

• The military needed 1,000 tons of magnets in 2013. Today it needs 3,000 tons—and that’s under “peacetime” conditions.
  

• According to the US Department of Commerce, domestic demand overall is projected to more than double from 16,000 tons in 2020 to 37,000 tons by 2030. By 2050, it could reach nearly 70,000 tons.
  

• Yet, even with every facility currently planned, America will be producing only about 14,000 tons by 2026—barely enough to cover what the auto and wind sectors alone will require.

That shortfall is the opportunity.

Once manufacturers discovered what these magnets could do, Pandora’s box opened.

There’s no turning back.

Autonomous cars, smart appliances, portable medical devices, each new innovation adds fresh layers of demand.

The positive feedback loop is simple: these high-performance magnets spur innovation, and every new innovation increases demand for these magnets.

And the race is on to secure supply.

The U.S. government has already injected capital into domestic players. One company we highlighted last month is leading the charge. It has signed more than a dozen agreements with aerospace, defense, automotive, and data-center giants.

We’re up modestly since first recommending it. But here’s the reality: the imbalance between demand and domestic supply is only widening. If you wait until the headlines catch up, the window will be gone.

If you’re a free subscriber, this is the moment to upgrade and get the ticker we’re buying to play this megatrend. If you’re already a Premium Member and haven’t acted, I urge you to consider it today.

The logic writes itself.

Premium Subscribers get the full details, including the ticker, below, so keep reading. If you’re not a Premium Subscriber, you can easily upgrade below.

~ Double D

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