Happiness isn’t the goal of life, but it sure is important. If you’re not feeling happy it isn’t because you don’t have enough stuff or not watching enough TV. According to experts you should join a club (doesn’t matter what it is just that you’re with others), walk outside in
Continue readingTag: Mind Space
Things Are Good: Stay Calm by Reading This Graphic Novel About Stoicism
Getting angry at things is easy, understanding one’s anger is hard, but by practicing the hard part you can become a better human. As always, it’s useful to learn from the work of people that came before us. Donald Robertson and Zé Nuno Fraga wrote and illustrated a graphic novel
Continue readingThings Are Good: Increase Happiness by Getting Out of Your Comfort Zones
If you ever feel that you’re in a rut then do something to get you out of your comfort zone. A new study reveals the importance for expanding one’s boundaries to increase one’s happiness. Going out of your comfort zone doesn’t need to be skydiving, public speaking, or anything extreme.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Volunteering Increases Happiness
People who volunteer tend to be happier than those that don’t. Is that because happier people volunteering or that volunteering can make you happy? It turns out that volunteering does increase your happiness. Researchers found that the average volunteer gets a happiness equivalent to a salary boost of $1,100 USD.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Reminder: Occasionally Pop You Filter Bubble
Figure 1 from Cook, Ellerton, and Kinkead 2018. CC BY 3.0 When Russia recently expanded their invasion into Ukraine they clamped down on what they called “fake news”, meaning that the increased their censorship. Many western-owned media companies were banned from operating within Russia while other companies continued to operate
Continue readingThings Are Good: Make People Feel Ignorant So They Listen To Experts
Figure 1 from Cook, Ellerton, and Kinkead 2018. CC BY 3.0 The rise of disinformation by organizations big and small means the role of experts is even more important. We have seen how people have been manipulated around elections to vote against their interests and even to deny a well-documented
Continue readingThings Are Good: Punctual Meetings are More Productive
It’s not just you who thinks there’s too much useless chatter at the start of the meeting. Meetings that don’t start on time are less efficient than those that do, and less creative. Another neat factor researchers found out is that people are less satisfied with a meeting that starts
Continue readingThings Are Good: Fight Book Bans by Reading These Books
Movements in the United States are trying to ban a number of works of fictions which they deem to be problematic. The problem, as they see it, is that certain books can help people question the world around them. Another problem they identify is that some books for children inform
Continue readingThings Are Good: Work Culture is Changing for the Better
Managers who care more about time than results will have to change thanks to better approaches to work. The idea of having to sit at physical location all day regardless of how busy you are is no longer acceptable. A new attitude to work is a postive thing about the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Kids Taught to Think the World is Nice are More Successful
Children raised with a positive world view are more successful than children raised with a negative one. A negative instruction about the world given to kids could be to distrust strangers despite the evidence that a child isn’t likely to be harmed by someone they don’t know. It turns out
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Book Can Improve Your Creativity
The recently released book, Jam This Game, explores concepts of creativity and creation in the world of game design. You may find it challenging tot be creative on demand and this book wants to help you overcome that hurdle. The book is about the games industry however the chapters on
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Climate Change Deniers are Done
Climate change deniers have clearly set back human progress and delayed us in reducing emissions, obviously that’s no good. What is good is that they barely exist anymore. The science has always been done properly around climate change and people are living the chaos that climate change has caused; it’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: Want to be more Creative? Use a Schedule
Depictions of creativity in popular culture show people getting a sudden spark or realization that sets them off. The creative idea or moment arrives randomly. Unfortunately that’s not the best way to approach a creative process, instead you should use a schedule. It might sound odd that in order to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Buying Time Provides More Than Buying Objects
Start 2022 with a new mindset of buying time instead of material objects. Researchers continue to find more evidence that for a fulfilling life one should eschew material gains for temporal gains. In practice this means that, when given the choice between spending your money on a consumer good or
Continue readingThings Are Good: How to Avoid Billionaire Trolls
Figure 1 from Cook, Ellerton, and Kinkead 2018. CC BY 3.0 The biggest trolls in the world are also the richest. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp fame and Elon Musk of Tesla fame are trolling us online and we shouldn’t let them get away with it. Zuckerberg trolls us by censoring
Continue readingThings Are Good: Saying Yes is Easy, Realizing You Should Say No is Harder
When a friend or colleague asks for help your instinct may to say “yes” right away and to lend a hand. That quick response may not be the best approach for you or for the person you’re trying to help as it could lead to trouble. It’s too easy to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Yes, You Have Changed
You have changed. The person you are today is not the same person you were years ago. Being able to change your mind is the mark of a smart person because you can re-frame how you think based on new information. Indeed, we can rethink our personalities too, more and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Philosophers Help Scientists do Better Work
Some empiricists argue that science is a separate discipline from philosophy, and those thinkers may want to rethink their stance. The debate isn’t philosophy or science, the debate is actually how much philosophical rigour should be applied within a certain field of research. In order to effectively advance scientific fields
Continue readingThings Are Good: Given the IPCC Report, Let’s Ban Oil Propaganda
Today the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released data that proves the world has rapidly warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, and is now careening toward 1.5 degrees. They are calling it a red alert for the planet. Obviously this isn’t good news. The oil
Continue readingThings Are Good: Shorter Work Weeks Work
Working less is better for everyone involved, including the employer. Iceland just ran a multi year experiment from 2015-19 to find out if a four day work week would damage productivity or improve it. Unsurprisingly, productivity didn’t go down and in some jobs it even went up. Tell your boss
Continue reading