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Celtics won’t hit bottom of the league
The Boston Globe: The Celtics beat the once-great Pistons, 118-111, at the Garden Sunday night in front of a hearty sellout crowd. Yowza. In Tankville parlance, we’d call this a 4-point game — in reverse. The Celtics move further away from the basement of the NBA and the Pistons inch closer to Boston among the bottom feeders. And here’s a little fun fact to go along with the perverse thinking in the spring of 2014. Sitting on the Detroit bench Sunday night, inactive because of left knee surgery, No. 1 in your program, Mr. Chauncey Billups. That name ring a bell? Billups represents all that can go wrong with tanking games. ...
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Psychology: ‘An Owner’s Manual for Your Own Mind’
The Atlantic: Over the last decade, Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert has become a prominent voice in the public sphere. His 2006 book Stumbling on Happiness, translated in over 30 languages, became an international bestseller, triggering a slew of invitations—to give a TED Talk, host the PBS series This Emotional Life, and write for The New York Times and other publications. Gilbert spoke with me about his untraditional path to psychology, how psychology affects (and is affected by) other academic fields, and why the study of happiness is critical for public policy. ... My history is pretty different from the history of most professors. I was a high school dropout.
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The Culture of Meetings
Some of the biggest international mergers of the last 20 years are considered to be textbook cases of corporate failure. The 2006 merger of French telecommunications company Alcatel with New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies, Daimler Benz’s 1998 purchase of American automaker Chrysler, and British Steel’s 1999 marriage with Dutch Royal Hoogovens are all considered examples of cultural mismatches. Many of the clashing business standards and corporate values that plagued these mergers were traced to communications between executives and employees — a collision of American or Anglo-Saxon attitudes with European sensibilities.
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3 Unexpected Productivity Strategies From Wharton Professor Adam Grant
Forbes: Adam Grant, an organizational psychology professor at the Wharton School, is a man in demand. In addition to his teaching duties, he’s a popular author (of the bestselling Give and Take), consultant, and speaker – and after a New York Times profile revealed his predilection to grant favors to almost all comers, he was besieged with 3500 emails in the ensuing weeks. How does he manage the deluge? Quite well, according to the Times, which lauded him as quite possibly “the most efficient and productive… in an academic field that is preoccupied with the study of efficiency and productivity.” Here are three unexpected productivity tips he shared in a recent interview.
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Reducing Anxiety With a Smartphone App
Playing a science-based mobile gaming app for 25 minutes can reduce anxiety in stressed individuals, according to research published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study suggests that “gamifying” a scientifically-supported intervention could offer measurable mental health and behavioral benefits for people with relatively high levels of anxiety. “Millions of people suffering from psychological distress fail to seek or receive mental health services.
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Is It Easier to Keep Resolutions for Lent or New Year’s?
Discovery News: As Christians around the world attend Ash Wednesday services today, many will also mark the 46-day period of Lent by resolving to give something up. While it’s unknown how many Christians successfully make it to Easter without chocolate or wine or forgetting to floss, they probably have an edge up on those who make New Year’s resolutions, experts said. “Everything’s working in your favor for Lent,” said Tim Pychyl, a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
