Monday 3rd June 2024
  • Brain Scans of Jazz Musicians Reveal How to Reach a Creative 'Flow State' - Scientific American (No paywall)

    Both expertise and the ability to release one’s focus can help people enter a state of effortless attention

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  • Why midlife looks different for millennials

    If you want to get a sense of how American midlife has changed, look no further than 1991 comedy “Father of the Bride,” in which actors Steve Martin and Diane Keaton play parents in their mid-40s. Conversation around a 2022 viral tweet calling out those portrayals largely agrees: whatever the movie’s ideal of middle age, it doesn’t resemble today’s spry 40-year-olds.

    Yes, midlife looks different now—in fashion, in youthful attitude, and in cold, hard numbers. Most days, with no kids, no husband, no mortgage, I don’t think of myself as a “real” grown-up at 37, at least not of the Keaton-Martin caliber. Sure, some people of my generation will soon have kids old enough to get married. But many are just having their first children—the median age of mothers giving birth increased to 30 between 1990 and 2019—or, like one fifth of adults, don’t plan to have kids at all.

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  • Meet the mom who took on toxic waste--and won

    When Lois and Harry Gibbs moved to a three-bedroom home in Niagara Falls, New York, in 1972, the young wife thought she’d hit the jackpot. “I really thought I had succeeded in finding the best house in this entire country,” Gibbs recalls. Her husband, a chemical worker, had a good job. Her neighbors were close-knit, the area idyllic. And kids, were everywhere, roaming the neighborhood, swimming in the local creek—the Love Canal neighborhood was an area “alive” with children.

    But things were not what they seemed. Under the surface, in the soil beneath its perfect houses, lay chemical contamination from a toxic waste dump—a ticking time bomb that would result in disease, tragedy, and Gibbs’ transformation from shy housewife into a nationally known environmental activist.

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  • Revolutionary weight-loss drugs like Wegovy come with a catch

    More than 73% of American adults are overweight, according to the CDC. This puts them at increased risk of death and many serious health issues, but losing weight and keeping it off through diet changes and exercise — the standard approach — is notoriously difficult.

    That made the FDA’s 2021 approval of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide (Wegovy) as an obesity treatment seem like something of a miracle.

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  • 19 Elon Musk Quotes That Will Inspire You to Success

    Like other great dreamers before him, Musk lives in a world of endless possibilities where nothing is impossible.


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  • I Will Never Hire Anyone Again Without Asking Apple's Genius Interview Question

    They say recruiting is a lot like dating. Online profiles act as piles of resumes that reduce humans to a comparatively tiny number of choice words they've strung together to entice you to consider them. All are hopelessly vying for your attention, if not approval. 

    For some, your "competitive salary" isn't competitive enough. Others won't find your benefits package to be, well, beneficial enough. And then there are those who are simply using your interest as a bargaining chip to show their current engagements that they need to step it up, as they have other options.


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  • The President of McDonald's Just Told Customers Why He's 'Frustrated and Worried.' Here's Why He Shouldn't Have Said Anything at All

    Like 95 percent of all McDonald's locations, that store is owned by a franchisee, which means the franchisee sets the Big Mac price. Having the authority to make pricing decisions theoretically allows an individual franchisee to adjust for local conditions, inflation, etc., but it's hard not to assume that it is sometimes based on what the local market will bear.

    The average price of a Big Mac in the U.S. was $4.39 in 2019. Despite a global pandemic and historic rises in supply chain costs, wages, and other inflationary pressures in the years that followed, the average cost is now $5.29. That's an increase of 21 percent (not 100 percent).


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  • Elon Musk's Biographer Says He Uses 1 Simple Trick. It's Pure Emotional Intelligence

    That's why I was a bit surprised when I read a recent profile of the man who wrote the acclaimed Musk biography from last year -- Walter Isaacson -- in which Isaacson's simple trick to get reluctant subjects to open up was revealed.

    In fairness, I think Isaacson probably had to employ it more on some of his other biographies of people like Steve Jobs and Henry Kissinger. But it comes down to something we've talked about before in this column, and it's really about emotional intelligence.


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  • In 1 Sentence, Kansas City Chiefs Tight End--and Taylor Swift Boyfriend--Travis Kelce Gave Insightful Advice on Handling a New Situation

    What's one of the first things you should do when you find yourself in a new situation--working with a new client, pitching your product or service to a new industry, or even in a new job? Learn the lingo.

    That very sound advice comes from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who helped his team win the Super Bowl three times, but is perhaps best known for his romantic relationship with Taylor Swift. In the latest episode of New Heights, the podcast he co-hosts with his older brother, former Philadelphia Eagle Jason Kelce, the two brothers discussed the importance--or perhaps unimportance--of learning their teams' playbooks. Jason pointed out that for those who've played football in college and/or high school, most NFL plays will be at least somewhat familiar. Besides, he said, players are taught the relevant plays at multiple points throughout the season and before every game, giving them plenty of opportunities to learn their parts.


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  • The CEO of American Airlines Just Made a Hard Decision. Here's the Best Way to See It Through

    Our teachable moment this week comes courtesy of American Airlines, which announced that one of its top executives, Vasu Raja, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, will be making his final departure from the airline.

    And as Gary Leff of View From the Wing put it, either Raja or CEO Robert Isom probably had to go. Since Isom is ultimately the one making the decisions, I suppose that it's not surprising who is leaving.


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