All posts tagged: new column

Five Ways to Make the World a Better Place

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. In a world full of intractable problems such as war and poverty, one tempting response—as a way of protecting your own happiness—is to stop paying attention. With good reason: Just following the news can invite a sense of powerlessness and be associated with lower mental well-being, and one of the reasons folks avoid the news is the anticipation of anxiety, perhaps because the bulk of what you see and hear is negative. On top of that, the national and global problems that the media report are out of your control. Only those with power, wealth, and influence seem to have the capacity to address those problems and the potential to make our world better. So unless you are a political hero, a world-famous entrepreneur, or a charismatic celebrity, you might as well tune out. Although this way of looking at things follows a certain logic, it’s the wrong way to see the world. In …

Don’t Be a Borrower If You Can Help It

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[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. Does having more money make you happier? Most Americans think so, yet economists continue to debate the question. A 2010 paper by two Nobel laureates concluded yes—but only for those earning up to about $75,000 a year. In 2021, an economist revisited the issue and found that well-being may go on increasing for much higher income levels as well. My own work argues that what matters is not how much you have, but what you do with it: Happiness doesn’t rise when you buy stuff, but rather when you use your money to pay for memorable experiences or time with people you love, or when you give it away to causes you care about. All that aside, there is one thing you can do with money that is very likely to raise your unhappiness: Borrow it without clear resources to repay it. Benjamin Franklin was onto something when he wrote in 1757, “Sleep without …

Think Twice Before Taking the Top Job

Think Twice Before Taking the Top Job

Published by Sam

[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. I teach many young adults who aspire to be leaders in the private and public sectors. In their classes, they study inspiring cases of success, but they also learn that a good education is no guarantee that things will go well for them. Indeed, as the Harvard Business Review reminds us, some 50 to 70 percent of new executives in private business fail in their role within 18 months of being hired or promoted. We don’t have comparable numbers for the public and nonprofit sectors, but success is far from assured there as well. The reasons usually presented for leadership failure are predictable enough: an inability to build a team, poor communication skills, an unwillingness to do hard things, selfishness, misconduct or moral turpitude, and so forth. But one huge reason that I have seen again and again almost never gets serious attention: Leaders fail when they hate being the leader. People commonly assume …

How to Know Your Frenemy

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[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. There are many different kinds of friends. Aristotle distinguished among friendships based on utility, pleasure, and virtue. Michel de Montaigne wrote about true friendship, which “grows up, is nourished and improved by enjoyment, as being of itself spiritual, and the soul growing still more refined by its practice.” In this column, I have written about the difference between real friends and deal friends. And then there is the frenemy. This portmanteau of friend and enemy first appeared as long ago as the late 19th century. It signifies a discordant relationship in which someone appears to be your friend or has a superficially friendly demeanor toward you but behaves in ways that real friends wouldn’t and shouldn’t. Perhaps the frenemy undermines you, manipulates your feelings, gaslights you, or says mean things about you behind your back. Identifying frenemies isn’t always easy, because the behavior can be designed to go undetected, or perhaps to be so …

How to Be Happy Growing Older

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[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. Next to one’s birthday, the passing of the calendar year induces us to reflect on the march of time in our life. This is not a welcome subject for many—which is perhaps why a lot of people simply redefine old age virtually out of existence. When Americans were asked in 2009 what “being old” means, the most popular response was turning 85. Yet the average life span in the United States in 2022 was only 76. Apparently, then, the average American dies nine years before getting old. The impulse to define old age as “older than I am now” is not surprising, given all the ways our culture worships youth—its beauty, vitality, and entrepreneurial energy—and offers us any number of options for spending time and money to stop or slow down the clock of aging. And as if the adulation of youth weren’t enough, the stigmatization of seniors is always at hand, through overt …

A Happy Christmas Meditation – The Atlantic

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[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. If you celebrate Christmas, you might assume that the “right” way to do so is simply to let loose: destroy your usual healthy diet with a lot of sugary, rich foods; drink more wine and liquor than normal; spend loads of money. Researchers have long affirmed that many people love this abundance bordering on excess. One study from 2007 found that the most common groupings of Christmas-holiday feelings related to bonhomie, gay abandon, ritualism, and love of shopping. Even hearing “Frosty the Snowman” in the pharmacy puts people in a festive mood. But the researchers found one other common holiday feeling: “dejection.” That included annoyance, disappointment, sadness, irritation, and boredom. If that describes your state—or if you’re simply uncomfortable with the season’s overindulgence—you might feel like a Scrooge. Because the world certainly wants you to understand your reaction in this way. But your response could be anything but misanthropic. On the contrary, a rejection …

Why You Might Want to Toss Out Your Trophies

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. From time to time, I visit a friend who has been enormously successful in business. He has an office in New York City that is decorated top to bottom with memorabilia of his many achievements. On the wall are framed magazine covers with his smiling face—CEO of the Year! On the bookshelves are dozens of knickknacks engraved with the dates of when he bought or sold a company. His office is like a shrine to past glories, and an obvious source of pride. Recently, however, he surprised me by saying he plans to get rid of all of these trophies. I asked why, and he told me that his business has struggled of late, and the trophies are only making his troubles seem worse. “I feel as if they’re mocking me.” This phenomenon has been called the “Ozymandias problem,” an allusion to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1818 poem about the once-great ancient-Egyptian pharaoh (also known …

Five Ways to Make Sure You Get More Sleep

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[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,The dear repose for limbs with travel tired … These, the opening lines of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 27,” accurately describe how I start out many a night. Unfortunately, my hope for rest all too often follows the bard’s next line: “But then begins a journey in my head.” The paean to sleep turns into a lament as I toss and turn. I am not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Most days or every day” in 2020, nearly 15 percent of American adults had trouble falling asleep in the previous month. The result is that Americans report feeling sleepy an average of three days a week, either because they don’t sleep well enough or because they simply don’t get enough sleep. Some have trouble sleeping because they, like me, experience the journey in their head. Others could sleep fine, but don’t; one of …