Have you ever sensed that your dog can read your mood? It’s not an illusion—science suggests that your pet can tune in to your emotional wavelength. One reason that dogs have survived so long as a species is because they evolved to understand humans. Think about it: humans depend on the ability to read one […]
Is Your Service Up to Snuff?
Disney has made headlines recently with its plans to reopen parts of its flagship theme park in Orlando, Florida in just a few weeks. (The Shanghai location opened on June 16, and the California location may follow suit later this summer.) A Disney vacation may look different for the foreseeable future, but the company has […]
Power Is Fickle
Is Silicon Valley growing tired of its most iconic founders? The recent grifts of figures like Elizabeth Holmes and Adam Neumann may herald an era in which people are more skeptical of leaders with eccentric beliefs and habits. In this atmosphere (and under increasing pressure from the federal government), industry titans Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg […]
Know When the Price Is Right
After a drastic drop in March and April, consumer confidence has been shaky around the globe—slightly up in the US, and down in China. Amidst so much upheaval, it’s reassuring to know that some things haven’t changed, including the principles that govern consumers’ choices. In Dollars and Sense, behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores how consumers calculate the value […]
Love Takes Practice
Falling in love is easy. But loving someone for a lifetime—well, that’s an art. In the 1950s, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm shook up the fields of psychology and philosophy with the simple (but revolutionary) idea that loving is a skill, not a state of mind. Before Fromm, people had always thought of love as a phenomenon […]
Let a Stranger Fix Your Life
Professional networking norms have been different in 2020. (Obviously!) Around the world, in-person conferences have been cancelled or postponed, which has eliminated many of the pathways by which people find the mentors who guide them to the next phase in their personal and career development. Fortunately, you don’t have to be well-connected to find a first-class mentor. Self-help guru […]
These 7 Habits for Success Start Early
Good habits start early. But teens have a lot going on in their lives—and that’s not even counting the new challenges we all face in the era of COVID-19. Between trying to please their parents, fitting in with friends, and struggling to succeed in school, it’s all too easy for teens to feel overwhelmed. Wouldn’t it […]
Style Your Business Like a Startup
These days, everyone’s an entrepreneur. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, startups were still all the rage: eye-popping IPOs drew attention to the ways that startups used dense talent pools and perk-laden headquarters to attract top talent and generate big wins for venture capitalists and early employees. But now that the economic outlook has soured, VC […]
The Roots of Unrest
Over the last few weeks, concern regarding inequities in the US criminal justice system have come to a head in protests against police brutality across the country. While civil unrest has spread rapidly, the underlying issues represent a chronic problem of which many people were blissfully unaware: Racism is a longstanding problem in the US […]
3 Tips for Weathering a Downturn
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment. According to the World Bank, the global pandemic has triggered a recession that will be the deepest one the world has seen in decades. Many people, particularly those who have lost their jobs or fear they soon will, feel […]
