Nice article in The Atlantic by Joshua Wolf Shenk about a study– that has lasted for 72 years!– where researchers at Harvard followed 268 normal when I picked them men who entered college in the late 1930s (including JFK and former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee).

Arlie Bock had gone looking for binary conclusions—yeses and nos, dos and don’ts. But the enduring lessons would be paradoxical, not only on the substance of the men’s lives (the most inspiring triumphs were often studies in hardship) but also with respect to method: if it was to come to life, this cleaver-sharp science project would need the rounding influence of storytelling.

If that article’s too long for you (you low-attention-span youngster), watch Dr. George Vaillant, the director of this Harvard study on aging (and who has himself followed the subjects for 42 years), as he explains what makes people strive for fame and why dirty laundry symbolizes a perfect life.. I don’t know what the hell this old man is rambling about.

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