Category: ideas

“Jen Doll speaks to a bunch of different creative types about what they’ve all learned from being bad at what they now do well.”

“But – and here Science of Us offers its sincerest apologies for being a complete and total buzzkill – in everyday life, emerging evidence suggests the ‘I believe’ attitude tends to backfire.”

The power of negative validation.

“Is Twee the right word for it, for the strangely persistent modern sensibility that fructifies in the props departments of Wes Anderson movies, tapers into the waxed mustache-ends of young Brooklynites on bicycles, and detonates in a yeasty whiff every time someone pops open a microbrewed beer? Well, it is now.”

A psychiatrist and researcher at Brown University is studying an aspect of (now-trendy) mindfulness practice that most in the field avoid: the people for whom meditation leads not to serenity or increased focus, but terror, severe depression, or, occasionally, a psychotic break.

“Brazilians are arguably the most hyper-social people on the internet. They spend twice as much time using social media as the global average, and more time online than watching TV.”

“America did experience a watershed moment of sorts. It wasn’t the election of Barack Obama. It wasn’t the U.S. birth rate hitting a record low in 2013. Instead, it was the Super Bowl. Specifically this year’s Super Bowl commercials.”

The study finds that, when the pressure is on, worry appears to be a motivating force for neurotic people. “Higher levels of intrinsic motivation in turn predict greater flexibility in idea generation,” the researchers add in the journal Emotion.

“As the touchscreen itself increasingly merges with its environment, and embedded technology goes mainstream, this raises questions around design for the next generation of digital experiences and services. Designing for Generation Moth is going to require very different skillsets and ways of thinking beyond what we do now.”