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THE ART & SCIENCE OF FINDING YOUR TRUE PASSION
Fulfillment Daily: As a young teenager on the main line of Philadelphia, I had big hoop dreams. I practiced my layup for hours at my school auditorium, imagining myself as the next Michael Jordan. That is, until a classmate named Kobe Bryant came along and I saw what the next Michael Jordan really looked like. Let’s just say that when ESPN dropped in to film Bryant playing against his school pals (and killing us) it became crystal clear to me: No matter how hard I practiced, I’d never be like Kobe. When I was 16, I decided to take up the cello. Though my grandfather, Harry Gorodetzer, was an accomplished cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, I’d never touched the instrument.
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Drinking Socially Makes it Harder to Tell When You’re Too Drunk to Drive
This New Year’s Eve many partygoers will be ringing in the New Year with a little more to drink than the traditional Champagne toast at midnight, making the holiday one of the deadliest times of the year to be on the road. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, New Year’s Day is the worst day of the year for fatal crashes involving impaired drivers, with data from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration showing that around 40% of the fatalities over the New Year’s holiday involve a drunk driver.
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Harvard Psychologist: There’s A Good Chance Your New Year’s Resolution Will Do More Harm Than Good
Business Insider: With January 1 approaching, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of seeing a new year as a fresh start, and maybe you have a New Year's resolution ready to go. But there's a good chance it could do more harm than good, says Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist and associate professor at Harvard Business School. "We're really bad at setting reasonable goals," she tells Business Insider. And when we don't meet an unreasonable goal, we fill ourselves with feelings of anxiety and lower our self-worth. We spoke with Cuddy about her research on the effects of goal-setting and how to avoid a resolution that will end up being a burden.
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Framed by forensics
Aeon: In 1992, Juan Rivera was arrested for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Waukegan, Illinois. On the night of the murder, Rivera was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet in connection with unrelated burglary charges, and this bracelet showed he’d been at home. Yet, based on a tip, police decided to arrest him. Rivera had a low IQ and a history of emotional problems, which psychologists knew would make him highly suggestible. The police chose to ignore that when they grilled him for several days and lied to him about the results of his polygraph test.
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How Headlines Change the Way We Think
The New Yorker: "Why Headlines Matter.” “Misleading Headlines Can Lead You Astray.” “How What You Read Affects What You See.” “How Bad Headlines Make Bad Memories.” “Eleven Reasons Headlines Are Important.” “You’ll Never Believe How Important an Accurate Headline Is.” Those are all possible titles for this piece that I discussed with my editor. And, actually, the one that we picked may be the most important part of this article. By now, everyone knows that a headline determines how many people will read a piece, particularly in this era of social media. But, more interesting, a headline changes the way people read an article and the way they remember it.
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Think You Found the Perfect Gift? Think Again
The New York Times: As you scour shopping websites and store aisles this season, captive to that frenzied, loving and exasperated hunt for perfect holiday gifts, here’s a little gift, of sorts, from researchers who study gift giving and receiving: Think gift card. Because the less specific the gift, the more it will be appreciated. You shudder, you recoil. But the sad truth is that while gift cards constitute a minority of holiday gifts, according to the National Retail Federation, they have been the most popular gift request since 2007. But you know your recipient best, right?
