Human beings are wired to notice novelty. It's a really helpful trait to develop - it helped our ancestors become aware of changes in their environment and the people around them. That's useful when you notice things that might indicate threats, like the quiet that meant a tiger was stalking us by the watering hole. Mindfulness or Novelty? These days, though, with few threats to our daily lives (beyond the existential), our devotion to novelty finds itself without something to attach to. So we constantly buy new clothes, go to new restaurants, and even look for new partners. It also pushes us to look for our happiness in the "next" big … [Read more...]
The 8 Things You Must Know or Your Life Will Totally Suck
If you don’t understand sarcasm, then please, for your own mental and emotional safety, don’t read any farther: Always remember: You are the victim. Everyone who tells you that their life is tough is full of crap because they don't understand how really tough your life is. They’ve obviously never been in your shoes for a day. If you feel that the universe is conspiring against you, it's because it is. You can’t go 20 minutes without someone deliberately making your life harder than it has to be. Throughout your life, you’ve always been the wrong height, weight, gender, ethnicity, and even when it seemed like you’ve had all of the … [Read more...]
Outliers – Malcom Gladwell
This article was originally published on April 10th 2009. If you haven't read Malcolm's stuff yet - go read it! You won't be disappointed. The 10,000 hour idea that he popularized only holds up for mastering in highly-competitive fields and doesn't translate to most activities (watch this TED talk on how long it really takes to learn a skill). Still, it's great food for thought. Malcolm Gladwell has an uncanny ability to pick a small, below-the-radar aspect of human experience and use it as a jumping off point for an exploration of how our brains work. In doing so, he usually goes well beyond the initial topic and invariably ends up … [Read more...]