How do our pets feel about us? Bored with studying the way that humans make decisions, neuroscientist Gregory Berns decided to find out. He used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to make the world’s first maps of the canine brain. One of the things Berns wanted to know is whether dogs have emotional lives, or […]
Fake News?
Mark R. Levin, best friend of Sean Hannity and the host of Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News, has a new book about modern journalism. Most reporters strongly favor the Democratic Party, Levin claims. With an official endorsement from President Trump (via Twitter, of course), UNFREEDOM OF THE PRESS has shot to the top of the […]
Three Ways To Get It Together
Have you been looking for ways to improve your life, either professionally or personally? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Successful professionals often borrow tactics and routines from one another to achieve their goals. By emulating the habits of effective people, you can make incremental changes to your life that add up to huge […]
Indulge Your Dark Side
There’s a fine line between self-improvement and being too hard on yourself. In living up to your potential, it’s all too easy to become locked in a cycle of questioning your own worth. Luckily, there’s an antidote: RADICAL ACCEPTANCE. This weekend, take a page from psychologist Tara Brach’s book and silence your inner critic. Radical acceptance […]
A Journey to Love and Faith
David Brooks and his wife split up in 2013, after decades of marriage. Adrift, the New York Times columnist threw himself into his writing. Brooks’s fortune took a surprising turn during a hike in Aspen, when he stopped to read a book of Puritan prayers. It was the first step in his journey towards Christian faith—and a second […]
Free-range Expertise
You don’t need a head start. You don’t need 10,000 hours. And you certainly don’t need to specialize in anything while you’re still a kid. With RANGE, a treatise against the cult of deliberate practice, journalist and sportswriter David Epstein makes the case for how people who learn a little about a lot of things […]
Strength in Weakness
Good business isn’t just about buying and selling. It’s also about generosity—giving and taking. We often think of independence as a virtue, especially in the Western world. But the research on networking tells a different story, in which receiving help from others actually boosts your reputation. Here’s an interesting example: Allowing yourself to express vulnerability […]
Don’t Worry, Be Unhappy
Mark Manson says that the modern world is hopeless. Or, more accurately, he says EVERYTHING IS F*CKED. Believe it or not, that’s the good news! Too many self-help books focus on happiness as a goal, but suffering will always be a natural part of life. We can only find real fulfillment, Manson says, when we […]
No pain, no gain?
Most emotional pain, like its physical counterpart, serves a function. The pain of a broken arm discourages you from using it and deepening the damage. Similarly, emotional pain provides a signal that it’s time to stop and reflect, a process that promotes healing. According to spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson, emotional suffering carries important information. People […]
Feeling Lucky?
How much of a role does luck play in investments and other important decisions? Former stock trader and influential statistician-philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb is uniquely equipped to examine the question—and the answer he finds in FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS might surprise you. Here are two top insights from our latest Instaread. Key Insight 1: The value of a […]
