Tech, Happiness, and the Search for Meaning
Building AI for the Whole Person
In the fast-paced world of AI and startups, it’s easy to celebrate each new breakthrough or funding round as a sign of success. But why do so many accomplished innovators still feel a gnawing void? Why do we – the builders and leaders of technology – sometimes catch ourselves asking: “Is this all there is?” As Walker Percy quipped, “You can get all A's and still flunk life.” In other words, one can achieve every conventional marker of success and yet miss out on what truly matters. This insight has patterned many of my interactions through my journey at Microsoft and as a mentor to entrepreneurs. It drives a fundamental question at the heart of tech leadership: How can we create and use technology in ways that not only satisfy our immediate needs but also deepen our sense of meaning?
The Four Levels of Happiness: A Framework for Fulfillment
One mental model I’ve found illuminating in addressing this question is one of my friends and former President of my Alma Mater, Fr. Robert Spitzer’s Four Levels of Happiness (What is Happiness? The Four Levels Explained). This framework, rooted in philosophical and psychological insight, breaks “happiness” into four distinct levels of increasing depth. Understanding these levels helps us see why certain achievements or pleasures leave us empty, while other pursuits fulfill us. Here’s a brief overview of each level:
Level 1 – Pleasure and Immediate Gratification: This most basic level of happiness comes from external pleasures. Think of savoring your favorite meal after a long day or the thrill of winning a video game. These moments feel good but are fleeting, wholly reliant on external stimuli and circumstances (What is Happiness? The Four Levels Explained). There’s nothing wrong with enjoying life’s simple pleasures – I’ll never deny the joy of a great cup of coffee – but by itself this level is shallow and short-lived.
Level 2 – Achievement and Ego Gratification: The second level is the happiness of achievement, success, and recognition. It’s the rush of getting a promotion, launching a successful app, or being applauded for a job well done. This form of happiness runs deeper than Level 1 because it engages our skills and goals. Yet, it is fundamentally comparative – How do I rank? Am I better or more successful than others? – which means it easily breeds competition, insecurity, and the anxiety of keeping up (What is Happiness? The Four Levels Explained). I’ve seen startup founders celebrate a big funding milestone only to worry the very next day about competitors and market standings. Level 2 can be exhilarating, but living only in this space often turns into a treadmill of never-enough.
Level 3 – Contribution and Service: The third level moves beyond the self. Here, happiness comes from doing good for others and making a positive difference. It’s the joy we feel when our team builds an AI tool that truly helps people, or when we mentor someone and watch them grow. Acts of generosity, community-building, and altruism characterize Level 3. This yields deeper fulfillment because it’s not just about me anymore – it’s about us. When I see a project from our Microsoft venture ecosystem improve accessibility for the disabled or provide education to underserved communities or uplift depressed economic sectors, that success carries a profound satisfaction that no trophy or bonus could match (What is Happiness? The Four Levels Explained). Level 3 aligns tech with our innate desire to love, help, and connect with others.
Level 4 – Ultimate Good and Meaning: At the top is the pursuit of ultimate meaning and purpose. Level 4 happiness arises from connecting with something transcendent – it could be spiritual faith, a sense of calling, or a commitment to truths and principles bigger than any one person or company. This is the realm of purpose with a capital “P.” It’s the engineer who sees her work as part of advancing humanity, or the entrepreneur driven by a mission to heal rather than just to win. Level 4 is about the timeless questions: Why are we here? What is the ultimate meaning of our work and life? When we tap into this level, even challenges and sacrifices take on value, because they serve a higher end. Level 4 happiness is about “connecting with something transcendent, whether through spirituality, love, or a sense of purpose that goes beyond material success.” (What is Happiness? The Four Levels Explained) It imbues all the other levels with context and significance.
This framework matters because it sheds light on a critical truth: if we ignore the higher levels of happiness, the lower levels eventually falter. Sure enough, research and experience show that if we remain stuck in Level 1 – constantly chasing momentary pleasures – we end up unfulfilled and restless. A life of all play and no purpose wears thin. Likewise, living fixated on Level 2 achievements can deliver ego boosts in the short term, but often results in burnout and hollow unhappiness. How many tech leaders have we seen hit a career pinnacle, only to feel strangely empty a week later? Fr. Spitzer sums it up pointedly: true and lasting happiness comes from progressing to Levels 3 and 4 – shifting our focus to others and anchoring our lives in something greater than ourselves.
When Success Isn’t Enough: The Collapse of Meaning
If Levels 3 and 4 are neglected, even our best efforts in technology and business can ring hollow. Walker Percy, the late novelist and philosopher often cited as a “diagnostician of the modern malaise”, understood this deeply. He observed that despite all the dazzling advancements of science and technology, the modern self often finds itself disappointed – bored at work, isolated in society, and estranged even amid comfort. Why? Because without a sense of higher meaning, our pursuits at Levels 1–3 eventually lose color. We can create ever more exciting gadgets, earn ever bigger accolades, and even help others in the community – but if we aren’t oriented toward some ultimate purpose, we eventually wonder, “What’s the point?”
Percy illustrates this crisis in The Moviegoer, where the protagonist Binx Bolling muses on “the search” for meaning. He says: “The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life... To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” In plain terms, if we’re not even searching for a higher purpose (Level 4), we’ll end up in quiet despair. That despair may not always be dramatic; it can manifest as a subtle angst – the successful founder who feels oddly aimless after selling her company, or the developer who loses motivation because he can’t see how his code makes any real difference in the world. I’ve encountered many engineers and product managers who hit a wall asking why their work mattered, and no amount of ping-pong tables or stock options could answer that for them.
This is why Level 4 is not just “nice to have” – it’s essential. Without the Ultimate Good as our north star, the other sources of happiness can collapse under their own insufficiency. Pleasure becomes addiction. Achievement turns to vanity or anxiety. Even altruism can devolve into burnout if we lack a larger context of meaning to sustain us (indeed, those doing good often face compassion fatigue when they don’t also nourish themselves with purpose). Conversely, when we do pursue Level 4 – when our work and life are aligned with ultimate meaning – the lower levels light up with new vitality. A weekend game or hobby (Level 1) is more enjoyable when our heart is content. Career success (Level 2) is sweeter when it’s tied to a mission, not just personal gain. Service (Level 3) becomes joyous rather than draining when we believe in a transcendent good it advances.
Building Technology with Level 4 in Mind
What does all this mean for AI practitioners, technologists, and leaders? It means that our innovations should intentionally serve the whole person – not just our user's immediate desires or our company’s bottom line, but their deeper well-being and purpose. In practice, designing AI for the “whole person” involves asking new questions during development: Will this application merely hook people into usage (Level 1 gratification), or will it help them grow, connect, or find meaning (Level 3 and 4 fulfillment)? Are we building in a way that respects human dignity and encourages flourishing, or are we narrowly optimizing for a shallow metric? Technology that only exploits Level 1 and 2 tendencies – think of apps that prey on short attention spans or social media platforms that fuel envy for engagement – might achieve popularity, but they won’t help people flourish. As one Microsoft research project on AI noted, we should guide AI toward a future that “harnesses its potential for human flourishing.” (Reflections on AI and the future of human flourishing - The Official Microsoft Blog)
In my role at Microsoft, I’ve seen encouraging shifts toward this mindset. We talk not just about AI effectiveness, but AI ethics, overreliance and empathy. When mentoring startups in our venture ecosystem, I urge founders to define the why behind their product: How will it uplift lives? How will it contribute to a better world? One founder I advised was developing an AI tool for elderly care. The tech was cutting-edge, automating daily reminders and health monitoring (great Level 2 innovation). But the breakthrough came when they reframed their mission around dignity and connection for seniors. They started integrating features that would notify family members to call or that would prompt the senior with personalized reminiscing questions to encourage storytelling that could be shared and enjoyed as a family. The technology moved from a cool gadget to something that touched on purpose and relationship. User engagement (but not usage) and satisfaction soared – because it was making lives more meaningful. This is the power of aiming for Level 4.
Microsoft’s own mission statement is “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Taken superficially, “achieve more” could sound like a Level 2 goal (more achievement!). But I interpret empower and achieve more in the broader sense: empowering people to achieve their potential, to live richer, more meaningful lives. In many ways it aligns with Level 3 and 4 ideals – it’s about people, not just technology. Initiatives like AI for Good, which apply machine learning to humanitarian or environmental efforts, similarly recognize that technology’s highest use is in serving deeper human needs. Even within our teams, I’ve found that developers and engineers are far more engaged when they understand the higher purpose of their work. Morale and creativity spike when people feel, “We’re doing something that matters, something that is beyond me.” It’s up to leadership to articulate that vision.
So, how can we concretely build AI and tech products that honor the whole person? A few guiding principles I propose:
Design for Human Flourishing: Define success metrics that relate to user well-being, not just usage. For example, an educational app might measure long-term learning and confidence gained (Level 3 outcome), not just hours spent on the app (Level 1 metric).
Encourage Community and Connection: Use technology to bring people together and strengthen relationships (a bridge from Level 3 to Level 4). This could mean collaborative features, support communities, or simply tools that actively remind us to engage more with real life. In an age where loneliness is termed an epidemic, tech that fosters genuine connection is addressing a profound need.
Embed Ethical and Existential Reflection: This sounds abstract, but it can be as simple as pausing to ask why. In AI development, alongside questions like “Can we build this?” we need to ask “Should we build this, and to what end?” At Microsoft, our AI principles (for fairness, privacy, transparency, etc.) are one layer of this (Reflections on AI and the future of human flourishing - The Official Microsoft Blog). On a personal level, it might mean tech workers periodically reflecting on how their project aligns with their own values. What kind of world are we contributing to? Such reflections keep Level 4 in view.
Lead by Example with Purpose-Driven Culture: If you’re a leader, share the meaning you find in your work and invite your team to do the same. I often speak about the impact our projects have – telling the story of a person who benefited – rather than just the technical feat. Storytelling infuses daily tasks with purpose. It reminds everyone that behind the code and data are human lives we’re touching.
From Innovation to Inspiration: The Road Ahead
The challenges of our time – whether burnout in the tech industry or the social dilemmas amplified by digital platforms – often boil down to a deficiency of meaning. Yet I’m optimistic. We have, at our fingertips, incredibly powerful tools of creation in AI and software. We can direct these tools toward any vision we choose. So why not choose a vision that lifts the human spirit? Why not build AI that helps people become more human, more fulfilled, more connected to one another and to a greater purpose? It’s a tall order, admittedly. It’s much easier to focus on immediate gains or visible KPIs than on abstract ideas like “meaning” or “flourishing.” Monetizing the smashing of that dopamine button is easy, encouraging deeper soul work is hard. But the effort is worth it, because technology that neglects the human quest for meaning will, ultimately, fail to truly satisfy. As Percy warned, “[we] live in a deranged age - more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” Pursuing meaning, committing to the search is our only way out. Failing to undertake the search leads to despair – and despair is not a foundation on which we want to build our future.
Instead, let’s take the higher path. Let’s pursue Level 4 happiness in our lives and infuse it into the products we create. Imagine an entrepreneurial ecosystem where startups compete to be the most meaning-driven, not just the fastest growing. Imagine AI assistants that don’t just organize our calendars, but also remind us to take a break and call our loved ones because it’s been a while. Imagine if the measure of “tech success” was how much it contributed to the common good and individual purpose. This isn’t naive idealism; it’s a very practical blueprint for sustainable innovation. Companies that sincerely serve the whole person will earn deeper customer loyalty and trust. Teams motivated by a noble mission will endure hardships with greater resilience (nothing builds grit like believing your work truly matters). And as individuals, aligning our careers with our values means we don’t have to leave our souls at the door when we go to work.
Without the pursuit of the ultimate good, all other gains prove fragile. But with that pursuit, even our setbacks can become sources of growth and our successes become truly meaningful. The Four Levels of Happiness remind us that joy and meaning are layered; to reach the highest layer, we must be willing to ask the biggest questions. As we stand at the forefront of AI’s new era, those questions are more important than ever.
So, I’ll end by posing a question to you – one I often return to myself: In the technology you’re creating or the work you’re doing, what level of happiness are you aiming for? If the answer stops at Level 1 or 2, I challenge you to dig deeper. The ultimate why of what we do can and should be part of our design specs. By striving for that Level 4 – by building AI and enterprises that advance the ultimate good – we won’t just change the world. We will also nourish the very hunger for meaning that makes us human, ensuring that our innovations enrich the whole person and not just the surface of our lives.
Walker Percy was right that scoring straight A’s in life isn’t the goal; finding meaning is. Let’s build that meaning into the machines we create, and in doing so, build a future where technology and happiness rise together to their highest potential.