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How to Boost Your Creativity
The Huffington Post: Do you sometimes feel like you're surrounded by creative people--musicians, writers, artists, builders, inventors--but have no muse of your own? Maybe you've said to yourself, "I'm not creative. It's a personality thing and I'm just one of those logical left-brained folks." ... Conventional wisdom says that a neat work space is essential for productivity. But isn't creativity unconventional?
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Software Detects CEO Emotions, Predicts Financial Performance
The Wall Street Journal: Computer programs that scan facial expressions have been used to detect whether people respond positively to commercials or whether hospital patients are in pain. Can they also read a CEO’s mind? James Cicon thinks they can. A finance professor at University of Central Missouri, Cicon built software that analyzed video of the faces of Fortune 500 executives for signs of emotions like fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. The emotions, he found, correlated with profit margins, returns on assets, stock price moves, and other measures of performance at the associated companies. Dr.
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Allow These Two Olympic Runners to Demonstrate the Motivational Powers of Belonging to a Team
New York Magazine: Over the long weekend, NBC aired what is essentially the Super Bowl of American running: the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Distance running is typically thought of as an individual sport, but the race also happened to inadvertently demonstrate a concept that’s recently been explored in the scientific literature — the incredible psychological power of feeling like part of a team. ... Cragg finished first, and Flanagan held on to third, securing her own ticket to Rio in August. Some have speculated that if it weren’t for Cragg’s encouragement, Flanagan may have fallen behind or dropped out entirely.
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How Economic Uncertainty Produces Physical Pain
Fortune: Embrace uncertainty — it’s the only surety in life, we’re often told. New research suggests these words may be easier said than done, particularly when it comes tofinancial uncertainty. During the Great Recession of 2008, stocks, bank accounts and IRAs weren’t the only things hurting. People were hurting, physically, and more so than usual. That year, Americans spent an estimated $300 billion on painkillers and other pain-related expenses, a 1,000 percent increase over two decades earlier and more than the combined yearly costs of cancer, heart disease or diabetes (based on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey).
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When rejection is the kindest thing a person can do
The Washington Post: Getting dumped is never fun. Neither is finding out that the crush you’ve been nursing is going nowhere. But when I think about all the times I’ve been rejected, the worst part wasn’t the moment of finding out the relationship was over. It was the part before — that awful stretch of uncertainty when I didn’t know whether the person I was into loved me or loved me not. There was the boy I dated in high school who went off to college and started seeing someone else. He couldn’t bring himself to tell me – for months – as I agonized over how hard it was to reach him on his dorm room phone. In the end, his best friend broke the news to me. ...
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The Rich Can Learn From the Poor About How to Be Frugal
The New York Times: I try to be frugal. But my instincts as a consumer are mistaken. Behavioral economics suggests that I’m often frugal in the wrong way and that you may be, too. Consider this situation: You’re shopping for headphones. An electronics store has the model you want for $50, a reasonable price. But a sales clerk says: “You know our other branch has this item on sale for $40.” Going to that store will take 30 minutes, and you can’t buy the headphones for that price online. Do you go to the other branch? ...
