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Why Do We Admire Mobsters?
The New Yorker: In 1947, when Elaine Slott was sixteen, she travelled with her mother and sister to visit her aunt and uncle in Florida. The day after they arrived, however, Elaine and her aunt boarded another plane by themselves. Elaine soon found herself speeding to Cuba, where the family had business interests. Elaine remembers that night well. After they landed, she and her aunt left Havana and drove for several hours into areas that seemed increasingly remote. It was very late and very dark when they finally arrived at a stately house. Along with a few guests, a number of family members, including Elaine’s uncle, had gathered there for a dinner party.
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What a Mission to Mars Can Teach Us about Teamwork
In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney is accidentally abandoned on the surface of the planet Mars. Through his own ingenuity he manages to stay alive on the inhospitable planet, but his only chance to make it home depends on the sophisticated collaboration between the crew still on the shuttle and his colleagues back on Earth. As the film elegantly illustrates, some of the biggest challenges for a mission to Mars aren’t technological, they’re psychological. Just imagine being trapped in a confined space with your coworkers 24 hours a day for over a year without seeing your friends or family.
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Understanding Others’ Thoughts Enables Young Kids to Lie
Developing theory of mind, a critical social skill, may enable children to engage in the sophisticated thinking necessary for intentionally deceiving others.
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WHAT’S THE MOST SATISFYING JOB IN THE WORLD? YOU’D BE SURPRISED
Ted: Why do we work? Why do we drag ourselves out of bed every morning instead of living lives composed of one pleasure-filled adventure after another? What a silly question. We work because we have to make a living. Sure, but is that it? Of course not. When you ask people who are fulfilled by their work why they do the work they do, money almost never comes up. The list of nonmonetary reasons people give for doing their work is long and compelling. Satisfied workers are engaged by their work. Satisfied workers have a measure of autonomy and discretion in their work, and they use that autonomy and discretion to achieve a level of mastery or expertise.
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The ‘Hot Hand’ Debate Gets Flipped on Its Head
The Wall Street Journal: People have been hunting for proof of the hot hand in basketball longer than Stephen Curry has been alive. The search has lasted three decades and exhausted almost all options. But the results were usually the same. There was no evidence of the hot hand. A player who made a shot was no more likely to make his next shot. Then something strange happened this summer. Economists, psychologists and statisticians started talking about a new paper on basketball. It claimed that the hot hand really does exist. But what made it truly mind-boggling was that the authors used the simplest scientific method: coin flips.
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Dishonesty Only Provides Short-Term Benefits
The New York Times: Is honesty for suckers? If by “suckers” you mean people who care about others and the social good, then yes, it is. If by “suckers” you mean people who care about the long-term aspects of their business (see the drop in stock price of VW) then yes, it is. And if by “suckers” you mean people who care about the meaning of their brand (I own a VW Golf and I don’t think I will ever be able to look at it again in the same way) than yes again. Read the whole story: The New York Times
