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Why It Pays to Be a Jerk
The Atlantic: Smile at the customer. Bake cookies for your colleagues. Sing your subordinates’ praises. Share credit. Listen. Empathize. Don’t drive the last dollar out of a deal. Leave the last doughnut for someone else. Sneer at the customer. Keep your colleagues on edge. Claim credit. Speak first. Put your feet on the table. Withhold approval. Instill fear. Interrupt. Ask for more. And by all means, take that last doughnut. You deserve it. Follow one of those paths, the success literature tells us, and you’ll go far. Follow the other, and you’ll die powerless and broke. The only question is, which is which? Of all the issues that preoccupy the modern mind—Nature or nurture?
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Holding on to the Blues: Depressed Individuals May Fail to Decrease Sadness
Given that depression is characterized by intense and frequent negative feelings, like sadness, it might seem logical to develop interventions that target those negative feelings. But new research suggests that even when depressed people have the opportunity to decrease their sadness, they don’t necessarily try to do so. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our findings show that, contrary to what we might expect, depressed people sometimes choose to behave in a manner that increases rather than decreases their sadness,” says the study's first author Yael Millgram of The Hebrew University.
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The Shakespeare Algorithm
The New Yorker: In 1727, a writer and editor named Lewis Theobald was preparing to unveil “Double Falsehood,” a tragicomedy that he said was based on manuscripts of a lost play by Shakespeare. “The good old Master of the English Drama is by a kind of Miracle recall’d from his Grave, and given to us once again,” the London Journal reported, when news of Theobald’s project emerged. Ever since then, however, the work has presented difficulties to the gatekeepers of the canon. For one, the manuscripts have vanished.
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The (Re-)Invention of the Soul Mate
The Atlantic: Humans, the playwright Aristophanes argued, once had four arms, four legs, and two faces. Our current, more streamlined look—current in ancient Greece, and current, still, today—came about because of pride. Those extra-ancient, multi-limbed humans had become arrogant, Aristophanes had it, and the gods, being gods, resented that. Zeus wanted vengeance. So he came up with a plan that was devious in its elegance: He would cut humans in half. This would, he figured, not only instantly double the number of people paying tribute to him; it would also create a kind of permanent humility, forcing humans into a sad state of severance: two bodies, one soul. Joined, but disconnected.
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Is Twitter an Echo Chamber?
The Huffington Post: I've been a member of both Facebook and Twitter for many years, and my experiences with the two couldn't be more different. While both are "social" in the broadest sense, Facebook for me is really like a rolling conversation, a somewhat gossipy block party where friends and family catch up on personal experiences and share some joys and sorrows. Twitter is much more contentious and political, a place for the opinionated to share their grievances and meet with others, similarly aggrieved. I emphasize that this is one man's experience. I'm sure other members will challenge me -- harshly on Twitter, more gently on Facebook.
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Is Twitter an Echo Chamber?
I’ve been a member of both Facebook and Twitter for many years, and my experiences with the two couldn’t be more different. While both are “social” in the broadest sense, Facebook for me is really like a rolling conversation, a somewhat gossipy block party where friends and family catch up on personal experiences and share some joys and sorrows. Twitter is much more contentious and political, a place for the opinionated to share their grievances and meet with others, similarly aggrieved. I emphasize that this is one man’s experience. I’m sure other members will challenge me—harshly on Twitter, more gently on Facebook.
