Preventable Personal Dangers

Preventable Personal Dangers
September 23, 2017
I don't usually advocate for worrying more. Quite the opposite, in fact, but there are at least a handful of personal dangers to your happiness and life that you may be overlooking. Specifically, the below list of things that may be worth worrying about more because they: (a) could be more likely to impact you than you realize (b) could have severe consequences if they do affect you ...
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The Problem with Pseudo Work

The Problem with Pseudo Work
September 19, 2017
Pseudo work (PW) is a problem. Pseudo work consists of tasks that feel productive but neither contribute to your goals nor help anyone else to any meaningful degree. PW (pseudo work) is neither fun nor useful but, because it feels like work, we allow ourselves to do it and consider it work time. That means we may not even have it on our radar as something to get rid of (unlike pure procrastinatio...
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Restaurants I wish Existed

Restaurants I wish Existed
September 14, 2017
Here is a list of ideas for wild and wacky restaurants that I hope someone will create someday. Note: If you're a creator of wacky-concept restaurants, feel free to steal these ideas, just please invite me to the opening! No Spoons (a.k.a. Soup Flight)The entire menu always consists of 30 soups (most hot, some cold, most savory, a few sweet, most classic, a few experimental). They are only ...
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Mind-Bending Probability Questions

Mind-Bending Probability Questions
September 11, 2017
Watch as your mind is thoroughly broken by these easy to state probability questions. intuiting probabilities = too hard for us mortals Problem 1 - That Tuesday Boy Is Your Bane Ajax has exactly two children. For no reason, in particular, you decide to ask Ajax, "is at least one of your children a male that was born on a Tuesday?" and he truthfully replies, "yes". Given this information ...
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Ways to be a Better Friend

Ways to be a Better Friend
September 9, 2017
A list of simple ways you can be a better friend to the people you care about most (including close friends, family members, and romantic partners): INTERACTION - Avoid devices: don't use your phone when with your friends - Give focus: try to focus fully and completely on what your friend is telling you and, if you are momentarily distracted, return your full focus to your friend as soo...
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Useful Methods for Optimizing Space

Useful Methods for Optimizing Space
September 7, 2017
Consider this list of useful methods I aspire to use when organizing, optimizing, and decluttering my home and workspaces: DISCARDING Consider true replacement cost: if an item is rarely used, will never be needed urgently, and is not hard to get (i.e., you can easily order it online or go get it at a store if you ever need it) then the true replacement cost is the probability that you'll n...
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Vacation Memories

Vacation Memories
September 5, 2017
Right after you get back from a trip or action-packed vacation, I highly recommend the following: think through each day of the trip, one by one, and write a list of all the things you did. Visualizing each activity as you write it down. To ensure more detail, you can also do this at the end of each day of the trip, rather than waiting until the end. This will greatly improve your memory of yo...
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Trying New Things – Why to do it and Many Things to Try!

Trying New Things – Why to do it and Many Things to Try!
September 4, 2017
On trying new things (plus a list of many possible new things to try):I think it's wise to try things that are substantially new to you nearly every time you have the chance, so long as: The new thing seems likely to be beneficial or enjoyable OR is different enough from things you've done in the past that you don't think you can accurately predict how you'll react to it Trying the new thin...
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Design for Non-designers – 39 Principles for Designing Effective Interfaces

Design for Non-designers – 39 Principles for Designing Effective Interfaces
August 25, 2017
I’m not a designer or UI/UX person by trade, but I have to think a lot about interfaces and design in my work. Here are the 39 things I’ve learned over the years (including illustrative examples) about how to create nice looking interfaces and an effective user experience. (In my own designs I still have plenty of room for improvement along many of these dimensions.) Keep in mind that even if you...
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The Theories of Change List: Causes of Behavior Quickly Shifting in a Positive Direction

The Theories of Change List: Causes of Behavior Quickly Shifting in a Positive Direction
August 23, 2017
Mostly people stay the way they are, or change slowly. So what are the reasons that individual human behavior sometimes quickly shifts in a positive direction? Here's my current "theory of change" list. It seems to me that developing a better understanding of behavior change is incredibly important for creating a better world. Some of these categories are, of course, overlapping. OPERANT CONDITIO...
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