Does success make us happy or does happiness make us successful?
ppiness makes us successful. Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work: These best and brightest willingly sacrificed happiness for success because, like so many of us, they had been taught that if you work hard you will be successful—and only then, once you are successful, will you be happy. They had been taught that happiness is the reward you get only when you become partner of an investment firm, win…
1 min read
What do we do with our leisure time: what truly makes us happy or what’s easy?
do what's easy. Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work: Studies have found that American teenagers are two and half times more likely to experience elevated enjoyment when engaged in a hobby than when watching TV, and three times more likely when playing a sport. And yet here’s the paradox: These same teenagers spend four times as many hours watching TV as they do engaging in sports or hobbies.…
1 min read
This Type Of College Freshmen End Up Making More Money 20 Years Later
e happier ones: Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work: ...how happy individuals were as college freshmen predicted how high their income was nineteen years later, regardless of their initial level of wealth. He's citing this study: This longitudinal study examines the influence of dispositional affect, defined as self-rated cheerfulness at college entry, on 3 job outcomes (current income, job satisfaction, and unemployment history) assessed about 19 yrs later. Analysis…
1 min read
Is deliberately screwing up the best way to learn?
ing guided into mistakes during training led to greater confidence and overall better learning than being taught to prevent errors. Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work: In one experiment where 90 people went through a software training program, half were taught to prevent errors from occurring, while the other half were guided into mistakes during training. And lo and behold, the group encouraged to make errors not only exhibited…
1 min read
Which is more creative: a team of strangers or a team of old friends?
e perfect mix lies in between the two, and can be measured scientifically. Via Imagine: How Creativity Works: In essence, the amount of Q reflects the “social intimacy” of people working on the play, with higher levels of Q signaling a greater degree of closeness. For instance, if a musical was being developed by a team of artists who had worked together several times before— this is common practice on Broadway, since producers see “incumbent teams” as less risky— that…
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How are you most likely to hear about your next job?
om people you know but aren't very close to. From Charles Duhigg's excellent book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business: In fact, in landing a job, Granovetter discovered, weak-tie acquaintances were often more important than strong-tie friends because weak ties give us access to social networks where we don’t otherwise belong. Many of the people Granovetter studied had learned about new job opportunities through weak ties, rather than from close friends, which makes sense…
1 min read
Are the most creative things also the most predictable?
bsp; 89% of highly creative ads fit into just six templates. Only 2% of lesser ads could be categorized. Via Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die: In 1999, an Israeli research team assembled a group of 200 highly regarded ads—ads that were finalists and award winners in the top advertising competitions. They found that 89 percent of the award-winning ads could be classified into six basic categories, or templates. And: The researchers also tried to use their six…
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Does doodling actually increase your ability to pay attention?
ve posted before about the positives and negatives of daydreaming. Looks like doodling may increase your ability to pay attention when your mind is tempted to wander: Via The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You): Now, we know that mind-wandering can hamper memory performance on such tests. Does doodling offer some protection against this? The results of Andrade’s study: doodlers recalled 29 percent more information than nondoodlers did. Precisely…
1 min read
