While some group conversations are great (e.g., with close friends), a lot of group conversations are boring, the lowest common denominator, or hijacked by one talkative person. How can you make group conversations more interesting? Here's what I've found to be useful: 1) Shrink the group The best group conversations typically happen (I claim) in groups of 3 to 5. If your group is bigger...

As you may have experienced yourself, sometimes, when people are chronically ill and go to lots of doctors, the doctors conclude that there is nothing medically wrong. I think it's important in these cases not to jump to a conclusion too quickly about why it has remained undiagnosed and to take seriously *all three* of these possibilities: 1) Diagnosis Error: It's a non-standard presentati...

Consider the quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein Of course, that's not the definition of insanity, and Einstein didn't say it (despite the quote often being attributed to him). For those reasons, it sounds pretty stupid. But I would argue there is something wise about the quote and that it's worth...