How quieting the brain sharpens your mind … A while back, Fast Company ran an article featuring the “secrets of the most productive people”, a productivity how-to from 11 big hitters spanning industry, politics, media, tech, design, and entertainment, headlined by Oprah Winfrey. (Spoiler, if you don’t already have a kick-ass personal assistant, you’ll want […]
2 key points determine what others remember … Whatever interaction you’re in, 2 points will largely decide how the other person feels about it later — and neither one is the first impression. You’re eating a bunch of grapes and there’s one bad one. Which grape do you hope it’s not? Obviously, the last one. It’s better […]
When expertise can drive massive failure… Take a look at the photos of the men just above. How much DNA do you think they share? You might guess they’re related. Brothers, perhaps, maybe cousins. But there are obvious differences between them. The man on the left has a narrower head and neck, and less developed […]
Merely beating the average for 10 years makes you a superstar … One of the largest studies of stock trading was carried out through the 1990s and early 2000s by Brad Barber of UC Davis and Terry Odean of UC Berkeley. Millions of trades pointed to one conclusion — it’s all a giant crapshoot. Odean and Barber […]
Because you have to be where your customers are … On a cool Wednesday morning in April of 1982, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones showed up at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles to tape a new song with Paul McCartney. It was the opening session for what was to become the biggest selling album […]
It’s not a trend or a social construct. It’s biological reality…. Imagine you wake one morning to find a third arm, fully formed from the elbow down, extending from your solar plexus right in the center of your chest. It looks like your other limbs, you can move it just as easily, and it […]
It’s a tale of two datasets…. Brad has volunteered to sit in a lab, stare at a screen, and say out loud what he sees. All the while, parts of his brain are being observed and recorded. Later, in another lab, Amy can look at the recordings of Brad’s brain and know when he […]
The trick is realizing it… There’s an old joke: What was the Zen Buddhist’s order at the hot dog cart? “Make me one with everything.” Back when I started sitting, around 30 years ago, that was pretty much the way I approached it. By meditating, I was going to accomplish something. I was going to […]
Sorry, folks, but digital immortality by upload is impossible … Like the song says, “everyone wants to be on a postage stamp, but nobody wants to die.” And lately, one of the hottest topics for those who’d like to keep the party going forever is mind uploading, the notion that we can transfer our consciousness […]
Plus, it made others happier, too … Can paying taxes actually make you happier? Well, yeah. Just think about it. How many things are you happy to have that you could never pay for if they weren’t funded by taxes? The roads, the parks, a justice system, universal education, a social safety net (’cause you […]