ou must be tired of them. They're everywhere. Narcissists. And if you think there are more of them than ever, you're right. Research shows we are experiencing a narcissism epidemic. From The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement: In data from 37,000 college students, narcissistic personality traits rose just…
m pretty sure I just heard a gunshot. And that means she's dead. Hold on, I guess I better back up and explain... A 911 call came in. A domestic dispute turned into a hostage situation. The perpetrator has a gun on his wife and child. ESU (Emergency Services Unit, basically, the SWAT team) arrived, as did 4 NYPD hostage negotiators. And me. We stacked up outside the door to the apartment. But things were not going well. Shouting between the husband and wife was…
metimes your closest and most important relationships are also the most difficult. Why? Columbia business school professor Adam Galinsky and Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer have an answer: All your relationships are both cooperative and competitive. We work together with the ones we love but we also have a bit of rivalry going on at times. It's natural, but difficult. That competitiveness can be why friends and loved ones can have such a positive and motivating influence on us. But it can also…
es it ever feel like people are all self-absorbed jerks? Like they're not listening? Only in it for themselves? You're not crazy. Empathy is declining. Via Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It: A recent study at the University of Michigan revealed a dramatic decline in empathy levels among young Americans between 1980 and today, with the steepest drop being in the last ten years. The shift, say researchers, is in part due to more people living alone…
would all like to know how to be loved by everyone. In the end, who are our favorite people? Those who understand us and listen. Someone we can turn to and honestly say, "You get me." That really comes down to one skill: listening. And it's something most of us are awful at. In an age of sub-zero attention spans, focus is a superpower. And focusing on others is even more rare. When I asked the #1 love researcher, John Gottman, what the best thing…
anks to the internet, people are reading and writing more than ever. But is it me, or does it seem like the quality of that writing has gotten worse? However, this can be a good thing. These days, solid writing really stands out. It can be a competitive advantage in anything you do. Want to know how to improve your writing? Or have you ever thought about crafting the next great novel or screenplay? Want to know how to write like a pro? Me, too. So I called…
ar is... really scary, actually. Research shows being afraid you're going to lose your job can be worse than actually losing your job: “…perceived job insecurity ranks as one of the most important factors in employees’ well-being and can be even more harmful than actual job loss with subsequent unemployment.” In a number of surveys, fear of speaking in public ranks higher than fear of death. Jerry Seinfeld interpreted this as meaning that at a funeral, more people would rather be in the…
seems we all want to know how to improve self-esteem these days. Life can be hard. And who is usually hardest on you? Yourself. There's that negative voice in your head criticizing you. And sometimes you can't shut it up. So the answer is to boost your self-esteem, right? We've seen an explosion of this kind of thinking lately, that self-esteem is the answer to everything. But it's had some negative effects on the world too -- like an epidemic of…
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