Category: ideas

“Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables in winter eliminated the scurvy that had plagued the northern United States. Iodized salt did away with the goiter belt of the Midwest. More nutritious, safer food contributed to a taller population that lived longer. Life expectancy increased from under 50 years in 1900 to around 75 at the end of the 20th century.”

“After seventy-two hours without my handheld devices, I didn’t miss my smartphone or access to Facebook. I missed learning new things.”

“Creative individuals suffer, and there are myriad problems to be solved. Unless my observational skills are severely lacking, I don’t know a single individual who would say that living a productive and happy life is easy.”

“It’s hard, for the non-scientist, to understand what, exactly, neuroplasticity is and what its potential truly is. ‘I’ve seen tremendous exaggeration,’ says Greg Downey, an anthropologist … and co-author of the popular blog Neuroanthropology. ‘People are so excited about neuroplasticity they talk themselves into believing anything.'”

“All of us fall prey to the same cognitive biases that are at the root of conspiracy theories. … We seem to be hardwired to suspect that a conspiracy has taken place. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; being mildly paranoid can work in our favor.”

“There’s no single cause. Chronic lateness is a kind of end-product phenomena. People can have very different sorts of motives and patterns” – several of which are explored here – “that lead them to be chronically late.” One common factor:  we  they honestly don’t mean to be rude.

“Modern American culture is down on shame – it is, we are told, a damaging, useless emotion that we should neither feel ourselves nor make others feel. This is particularly the case when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction. … But in fact, the experience of shame – the feeling that one has failed to live up to one’s own standards – can play a positive role in recovery from addiction, as well as from other kinds of destructive habits.”

Collaboration is everywhere these days. If you don’t collaborate on work, you’re old-fashioned. But a backlash is developing as research finds that workers may produce lower quality work. “Why have organisations been so naive about collaboration? One reason is that collaboration is much easier to measure than ‘deep work’.”

“He was super nice, full of energy, and took two to three pictures of us before handing us his card. It all took less than five minutes. We thanked him and continued on our walk as if nothing happened. (This was, after all, New York!)”

“You can charge for delivering happiness only if you can measure it.”