Falling for sleep
Sleep has been transformed from a deeply personal experience to a physiological process; from the mythical to the medical; and from the romantic to the marketable. Our misconstrued sense of sleep and consequent obsession with managing it are the most critical overlooked factors in the contemporary epidemic of sleep loss.
A look at the results of chronic sleep deprivation, which can lead to heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune illnesses, and depression.
Rubin Naiman argues that wakism, our devotion to what we experience while awake, prevents us from appreciating the positive aspects of sleep.
A BETTER KIND OF HAPPINESS
Here’s a fascinating article on the concept of eudaemonic happiness, defined by Aristitle about 2,500 years ago:
In his Nicomachean Ethics, he described the idea of eudaemonic happiness, which said, essentially, that happiness was not merely a feeling, or a golden promise, but a practice. “It’s living in a way that fulfills our purpose,” Helen Morales, a classicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told me. “It’s flourishing. Aristotle was saying, ‘Stop hoping for happiness tomorrow. Happiness is being engaged in the process.’ ” Now, thousands of years later, evidence that Aristotle may have been onto something has been detected in the most surprising of places: the human genome.
Psychologists continue to look for explanations and examples of this higher-order form of happiness, which differs from (but does not preclude) sensual pleasures such as a good pizza or a glass of good wine.
Study uncovers how exposure to social news videos affects behavior
Research into how internet-based delivery of social news produced some perhaps not surprising results:
in the positive social news condition, kindness and providing help are the most salient contents–these prime conventional norms mean more altruistic behaviors as well as a greater tolerance for opponents defecting during the prisoner’s dilemma game. In the negative social news condition, harm towards innocent people and unethical behavior are signs of rule violations and lower moral levels. This leads to a greater propensity to break the rules and cheat.
The 9 Biggest Myths About Creativity You Should Never Believe
Some of the most common adages are not true at all. Here are nine aspects of traditional knowledge about creativity that are wrong, at least in the business setting:
- Innovation = creativity
- Innovation = entrepreneurship and startups
- You were either born creative or not
- There is nothing you can do to increase innovation organically in your company
- You need to drive innovation
- You need to build an innovation space and allocate time for creativity
- Financial incentives increase creativity
- Innovation requires significant resources and funding
- Innovation initiatives need to be implemented throughout the entire organization
© 2016 by Mary Daniels Brown