Coach Bill Campbell was one of the most valuable players in the history of Silicon Valley, working behind the scenes to create trillions of dollars of value for companies like Apple and Google. But he was content to stay out of the spotlight after retiring as a football coach for the Columbia Lions. Campbell’s selflessness […]
Emotions Are a Type of Information
Emotions are a powerful navigational tool that can help you make better decisions under challenging circumstances. While strong negative emotions like anger and grief may feel overwhelming, your inner life is a valuable source of information. If you can learn to analyze your emotions without feeling overwhelmed, you’ll cultivate an emotional agility that will make […]
Creating the Right Incentives
Sometimes competitive compensation isn’t enough. Motivation isn’t just a matter of money. Everyone wants to feel as though their work has meaning that goes beyond their compensation. When your daily grind feels meaningful, you’ll usually be more productive—especially when you take pleasure in the work. But when the work feels meaningless and empty, your productivity […]
How to Cultivate Resilience
Accepting fate is better than fighting it. Philosophy is more than just old ideas printed in textbooks. It is a discipline that you can practice daily. The Stoic philosophy, for instance, helps people build discipline, fortitude, and resilience. Practicing Stoicism can help you make objective decisions faster and more accurately. Stoics accept reality. They strive to perceive the world […]
Make Yourself Understood
There are many barriers to communicating clearly in our modern world. Every day, people misunderstand one another, but they rarely realize there’s a problem until it’s too late. How can you make sure that you say what you mean—and that other people hear you? Here are two top insights from our latest release, TALKING TO […]
Weekend Wisdom – How to be Present
There have always been competing demands on your time and attention. But now that many of us are working from home, it’s more difficult than ever to field distractions and focus on what’s important. Meditation can help, but you may find that concentration is in short supply. Fortunately, Jon Kabat-Zinn says that you don’t need […]
The Secret Lives of Babies
A new baby will bring joy into your household. But parenting can also be a challenge—that is, until you crack the code. Once you learn how to interpret the baby’s “language”—the cries and nonverbal cues that infants use to communicate what they want—you’ll have it made. Troubleshoot sleeping problems, feeding issues, and other new parenting […]
Check Your Impulses
Self-control is a precious resource that’s tested countless times a day, whether you’re fighting the urge to procrastinate or tempted to eat an unhealthy snack. In WILLPOWER, psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney walk through the steps of expanding your reserves of self-discipline to win these battles throughout the day. Here are two top insights […]
Working From Home? We’ll help you stay productive.
In the late seventeenth century, Trinity College in Cambridge, England issued an urgent message to its students and faculty: go home, or risk getting sick. At the time, London was being ravaged by an outbreak of the bubonic plague that ultimately killed a quarter of the city’s population. However, the warning sent by that school’s […]
Don’t Be Irrational
We all make mistakes. But most of our cognitive errors follow predictable patterns, which means they’re often avoidable. If you can train yourself to recognize the patterns, you can optimize your decisions in business matters and in your personal life. Learn to process data methodically and logically with our Instaread on THE ART OF THINKING […]