Thursday 23rd May 2024
  • You Need New Skills to Make a Career Pivot. Here’s How to Find the Time to Build Them. - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)

    With any significant change in your career comes the need for new skills. But that’s even more true when you want a radical career change. In these situations, it’s going to take more than listening to a few webinars to build the knowledge you need get to where you want to go. You must set aside a significant amount of time for self-directed learning, formal training, or even a second job to gain the skills for the big leap. There are a few strategies to be effective for consistently making time for acquiring new career skills. First, accept the time commitment; you may need to scale back on nonessential activities. Second, research what’s required for your new field, whether it’s formal licensing, independent working, or side hustle work. Third, layer in learning onto activities you’re already doing throughout your day. Fourth, designate specific times you’ll dedicate to skill-building — and stick to it. Finally, modify your work schedule, if needed.

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  • 3 Ways to Make a Request That Doesn’t Feel Coercive - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)

    Research shows that people feel more pressured to agree to requests than we realize, frequently agreeing to do things they would rather not do, such as taking on burdensome, low-promotability work tasks. As a manager, what can you do to ensure that your employees aren’t taking things on because they feel like they have to, but because they actually want to? In this article, the authors share three research-backed suggestions for how to elicit a more voluntary “yes” when making a request: 1) Give people time to respond. 2) Ask them to respond over email. 3) Share an example of how to say “no.”

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  • ‘Deny, denounce, delay’: the battle over the risk of ultra-processed foods - FT (No paywall)

    Despite a growing body of evidence, Big Food is trying to dampen fears about the health effects of industrially formulated substances

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  • “Everyone is absolutely terrified”: Inside a US ally’s secret war on its American critics

    A foreign government is trying to silence US critics of its authoritarian turn — and it's succeeding.

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  • Why a ‘sleep divorce’ might be good for your relationship - History (No paywall)

    Sleep divorce involves couples sleeping in separate beds or bedrooms to improve sleep quality. This practice helps avoid common sleep disturbances like snoring, insomnia, differing sleep schedules, and restlessness, which can lead to fatigue and relationship tension. Here’s what you need to know about the trend and its potential benefits for your health.

    In ancient Rome, the concept of the marital bed, known as “lectus genialis,” was both practical and symbolic. Roman couples often used one bed for intimate conversations and physical intimacy, making it a private space within the home. It was not unusual for them to retire to separate beds when it was time to sleep.

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  • Does the perfect workout really exist? - National Geographic (No paywall)

    But to some, classes like Cure’s—plus a swath of other trendy group workouts like bungee fitness, trampoline jumping, and drumstick routines—have become the subject of ridicule. On sites like YouTube and TikTok, millions have posted videos with the running joke, Middle Aged Women Doing Anything But Working Out. 

    Yet, with a glut of information and limited time, choosing the best way to work out can be daunting. Research alone suggests one should forego the flying bungees. But what about exercisers disinclined to hit a weight bench or intimidated by CrossFit? Is there any such thing as a perfect workout? Here’s what the experts say.

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  • I was an airline pilot for 11 years. The Singapore Airlines incident shows why you should always wear your seatbelt. - Business Insider (No paywall)

    An ex-EasyJet pilot discusses turbulence, the Singapore Airlines incident, and why passengers should always wear seatbelts when flying.

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  • Wall Street worries about revenue 'round-tripping,' after big AI deals by cloud giants including Amazon and Google - Business Insider (No paywall)

    Big tech has invested heavily in AI startups. Some of those startups are spending that money on Big Tech cloud services. Is that real growth?

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  • Why 'quiet quit' when you can 'quiet vacation'? Millennials are taking time off without telling their bosses. Gen Z has a different tactic. - Business Insider (No paywall)

    Nearly four in 10 millennials said they have taken time off without telling their boss, a poll found. Just 24% of Gen Zers and Gen Xers said the same.

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  • Why physicists now question the fate of the Universe

    Ever since we first recognized that the Universe was expanding, one question has dominated the minds of those who study it: how will it all end? Today, we recognize that our Universe began from a much smaller, denser, hotter, and more uniform state: a state that we identify with the hot Big Bang. Over time, that Universe has expanded, cooled, and evolved, but also gravitated: clumping and clustering to form an intricate cosmic web of structure across millions and even billions of light-years. Today, when we use our powerful instruments to look out at the Universe — nearby, at intermediate distances, and to the greatest distances we can measure — we learn what the Universe is made of, and draw conclusions about what its ultimate fate would be.

    In the 1960s, we found unambiguous evidence supporting the hot Big Bang. In the 1970s and 1980s, it became clear that our Universe also contained large amounts of dark matter: more dark matter than normal matter, in fact. And starting in the 1990s, we discovered that the Universe — and its expansion rate — were both dominated by dark energy, which behaved as a form of energy inherent to space itself. All of this led us to an astounding conclusion: that based on what we know about the laws of physics and the contents of our Universe, our fate would be to expand forever, with dark energy remaining at a constant energy density for eternity.

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