February 2012
1 post
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January 2012
4 posts
1 tag
The Willpower Trick
Jonah Lehrer:
These findings are incredibly revealing, as they document the banal secret of willpower. It’s not that these people have immaculate wills, able to stare down tempting calories. Instead, they are able to intelligently steer clear of situations that trigger problematic desires. They don’t resist temptation — they avoid it entirely. While unsuccessful dieters try to not eat the ice...
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December 2011
2 posts
2 tags
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November 2011
3 posts
2 tags
Perpetuation of Ignorance
SciGuru.com:
The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
And the more urgent the issue, the more people want to remain unaware, according to a paper published online in APA’s Journal of...
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WatchNPR: Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion
October 2011
14 posts
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The Dark Side of Happiness
Gareth Cook:
Now, though, there is gathering evidence that happiness is not what it may appear. A string of new studies suggests that the modern chase after happiness–and even happiness itself–can hurt us. Happy, it turns out, is not always the way you want to be. To be happy is to be more gullible. Happy people tend to think less concretely and systematically; they are less persuasive. A...
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Envy's Aftertaste
John Tierney:
Compared with the control group, the students who’d just finished describing their past envy spent more time studying the interviews and were better at recalling details about these two people. Merely reliving their envy of past rivals apparently caused them to pay more attention to current peers, even though there was nothing obviously threatening about these two people.
Skepticism vs. Cynicism
D.J. Grothe:
We say that skepticism is the best way of finding out the truth and is precisely the opposite of just saying “no” to others’ beliefs. On the other hand, a knee-jerk rejection of others’ beliefs is more akin to cynicism, not skepticism, and is rather closed-minded.
In my experience, skeptics are critical thinkers who have a real desire to learn the truth about these sorts of...
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Why Do Sandwiches Taste Better When Someone Else...
Daniel Kahneman:
When you make your own sandwich, you anticipate its taste as you’re working on it. And when you think of a particular food for a while, you become less hungry for it later. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, for example, found that imagining eating M&Ms makes you eat fewer of them. It’s a kind of specific satiation, just as most people find room for...
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aaronmahnke:
This is my favorite photo of Steve Jobs. Leaning forward to connect with his wife after his keynote presentation at the 2011 WWDC. You can almost feel the relief and accomplishment radiating from him.
When I see this photo, I see a man who bent every fiber of his will toward a goal so lofty, so seemingly unattainable that no one thought it was possible, and at the end of that...
September 2011
0 posts
1 tag
June 2011
1 post
February 2011
1 post
