--- title: Five Best Ideas: Pursue Meaning Instead of Happiness in 2017 description: Pursue meaning instead of happiness in 2017, do we still need English majors and more. canonical: https://time.com/4621731/pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness-in-2017/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-04T17:00:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:12.498Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Pursue Meaning Instead of Happiness in 2017 og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4621731/pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness-in-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pursue Meaning Instead of Happiness in 2017 twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Pursue Meaning Instead of Happiness in 2017 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 4, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 4, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**In 2017, pursue meaning instead of happiness.**](http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/12/in-2017-pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness.html) By Emily Esfahani Smith and Jennifer Aaker in the Science of Us **2\.** [**Do we still need English majors?**](http://thesmartset.com/english-majors-twilight/) By Stephen Akey in the Smart Set **3\.** [**Here’s how a couple thousand carpools could transform morning commutes—and make our cities healthier.**](https://www.csail.mit.edu/ridesharing%5Freduces%5Ftraffic%5F300%5Fpercent) By Adam Conner-Simons at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory **4\.** [**Biometrics—fingerprint and retina scans—aren’t just for airports anymore.**](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-28/popcorn-peanuts-iris-scan-nba-mlb-teams-enter-high-tech-age) By Alan Levin and Jonathan Levin at Bloomberg News **5\.** [**Want to live a long life? Make sure your doctor is a woman.**](http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2016/12/19/harvard-female-physicians-outcomes) By Carey Goldberg at WBUR  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4621731/pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness-in-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4621731/pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness-in-2017/"},"headline":"Pursue Meaning Instead of Happiness in 2017","datePublished":"2017-01-04T17:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:12.498Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4621731/pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness-in-2017/","keywords":["Innovation","medicine","Commute"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4621731/pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness-in-2017/","name":"Pursue Meaning Instead of Happiness in 2017"}}]}] ```