A Serious Case for Humor | Jennifer Aaker & Naomi Bagdonas

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

A common denominator among all of the great meditation teachers is a sense of humor. They take the teaching seriously, but they don’t take themselves seriously. So perhaps there’s a link between human flourishing and humor. That’s not to say you have to be hilarious in order to be happy, but it clearly helps a great deal not to take yourself so seriously. And it turns out that humor is a skill.

Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas co-teach a course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, called, “Humor: Serious Business.” They also co-authored a book called, Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (and How Anyone Can Harness It. Even You.)

Dr. Jennifer Aaker is the General Atlantic Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business whose work has been published in leading scientific journals and featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Science. Naomi Bagdonas is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an executive coach. She trained formally at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, teaches improv in San Francisco’s county jail, and performs in comedy venues.

This episode explores:

• Why Naomi and Jennifer say we’ve fallen off a humor cliff
• The four main humor styles and how to figure out which is yours
• When self-deprecation works, and when it doesn’t
• How to conduct a humor audit
• How to sign off your emails
• The relationship between humor and status
• The connection between humor and love
• A taxonomy of workplace humor
• The different types of humor fails, and what to do about them

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/jennifer-aaker-naomi-bagdonas-423

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