New Neuroscience Reveals 6 Secrets That Will Increase Your Attention Span
’ve all wondered about it. You’re not crazy: yes, our attention spans really are declining. In 2004, people averaged 150 seconds on a computer screen before switching to a different screen. In 2012, that dropped to 75 seconds. Studies from 2016 to 2021 showed it had dropped again to somewhere between 44 to 50 seconds. And that’s an average. So half the time it’s shorter than that. Yes, I know, now you want a t-shirt that says, “I Read Eric’s…
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New Neuroscience Reveals 8 Secrets That Will Make Your Memory Stronger
memory consists of 70 percent lines from Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes and 30 percent embarrassing moments. Why? I have no idea. Often, memory seems to make no sense. But here’s the thing: a lot of what we think we know about how memory works is wrong. First off, it’s not a perfect video recording of what happened. Memories are a lot more like Legos, assembled and reassembled each time, and rarely in the same way twice. And memory isn’t…
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This Is The Most Fun Way To Make Your Life Awesome
just don’t take humor that seriously. Yeah, it makes us happier, but its effects are much, much more profound than you might guess. People who use humor to cope with stress have better immune systems, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, experience less pain during dental work and live longer. Surgery patients who watched comedies needed 60% less pain medication. Heck, even anticipating humor has been shown to reduce stress. Humor improves your relationships. Surveys say it’s the second…
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These 5 Things Will Make You Smarter
hn von Neumann could multiply two eight-digit numbers together in his head – when he was six-years old. At 22 he was helping to develop what would become quantum mechanics. His off-the-charts mathematical ability made the Manhattan Project a success. He all but invented game theory. (Ever hear the term “zero-sum”? He coined the phrase.) And building on work by Alan Turing and Kurt Godel he laid the groundwork for the computer you’re using. Students could barely keep up with…
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This Is How To Have A Long Awesome Life
at happens when people eat right, maintain a healthy weight, exercise, and don’t smoke? They prevent 80% of heart attacks, 90% of type 2 diabetes, and significantly reduce the chance of cancer, dementia and pretty much every other bad thing you can think of. But we’re, uh, not very good at eating right. When Harvard researchers analyzed the average American diet, it scored a 48 out of a possible 110 in terms of health. Yeesh. Unfortunately, what we call “living…
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The Lazy Way To An Awesome Life: 4 Secrets Backed By Research
lot of men were dying and nobody knew why. In the late 70’s, the CDC realized that a shocking number of Hmong immigrants, ages 25-45, were dying in their sleep. They would gasp for breath but before help could arrive, they were gone. Autopsies revealed nothing. Perplexed, epidemiologists started calling it “Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome.” SUNDS was killing more Hmong men than the top five causes of death combined. But someone had an idea. Oddly enough, she wasn’t…
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The *Secret* Way To An Awesome Life: 4 Insights Backed By Research
ve got a secret. In fact, I’ve got 13 of them. So do you. That’s the average number of secrets people say they have when surveyed. Five of them are “complete secrets” – you’ve never told anybody. And eight more are “confided secrets” – you’ve told at least one other person but won’t be going public with it anytime soon. A study of 2000 people in the US revealed the most common types of secrets. 92% of the time secrets…
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This Is How To Have A Long Awesome Life
ere’s a lot of pseudoscience out there offering fake answers on how to be healthier and happier. They’re like cubic zirconia; they only look real -- and typically have a Magic 8-Ball level of scientific effectiveness. On this blog I typically attack those things with Occam’s Razor – heck, I use all of Occam’s toilet kit. (I firmly believe the only time crystals heal you is when you’re sodium deficient.) But in researching my new book, Plays Well With Others,…
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