There’s a global panic right now about the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.
While the illness is real, we have very little factual data about the illness or its spread.
For starters, there’s an indication this isn’t actually a virus — antiviral medications aren’t making much of a dent.
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A high school student created a fake 2020 candidate. Twitter verified it.
Social Media companies find themselves in a tough spot. A “verified account” is viewed as an authority… but what if it’s a fake account? And what of the real accounts that aren’t verified? The selection process puts a question mark over the trustworthiness of our gatekeepers.
Why Detroit Residents Pushed Back Against Tree-Planting
Some 50 years after Detroit’s trees were cut down —either for law enforcement reasons or for Dutch Elms disease— the residents are wary to plant new trees. The history of trees in Detroit shows how people can have two vastly different understandings of the same set of facts, and how persuading people takes more than just telling them what’s good for them.
Self-restraint builds our resistance to outside attacks on our position and helps us to see the larger picture during times of difficulty.
Bloomberg Big Decisions with Richard Thaler (video)
Richard Thaler is a co-author of Nudge (PRL writeup here) and a professor of behavioral economics, exploring why people make decisions that may not appear rational.
The Weird Power of the Placebo Effect, Explained
The placebo effect can change your world, improve your health, heal your mental ills… and we’re just getting started.
Today is the first day of Lent, the Christian observation of the 40 days before Jesus Christ’s resurrection, marked by Easter.
The Catholic Lenten tradition* involves some sort of fast or abstinence from a pleasurable activity during these 40 days, as a minor attempt to understand the struggle of Jesus’ final days and to build our self-restraint in a world bent on pleasure and external happiness.
*(I can’t speak towards other Christian traditions.)
Looking around, it’s evident that most people shun the idea of self sacrifice as improvement.
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#coldshower #decoy #focus #fasting #workplace #perceptionisreality #reality #GeorgeCostanza
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#food #eyes #bodylanguage #repetition #politics #influence #languages #learning
(more…)Business meetings are often held at a table or desk. One side of the negotiation (or argument) sits on one side of the table; the other side of the negotiation sits… on the other side. (amazing insight, I know)
If business is war, then the negotiation table is the battle field.
But good negotiations don’t have to be a battle. In reality, they should be a collaborative approach to problem solving.
Here are a few tips to improve your influence… just based on where you sit.
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#money #sales #technology #values #persuasion #chrissvoss #sports #effort #masshysteria
Famous advertising man Claude Hopkins wrote in his book My Life in Advertising that his desire to go into sales was an effort to graduate from the debit class.
In his administrative position, Hopkins recognized that he could only make so much money if he drew a company salary. To graduate from the debit class, Hopkins had to produce income for his employer.
Hopkins became a very successful rainmaker, bringing in the magical rain —money— that allows a company to grow.
Not all sales people are rainmakers… but they could be. You could be.
Jeffrey J Fox’s book How to Become a Rainmaker details the rules to becoming this high-selling rainmaker in your company. (more…)
Francisco Osorio, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
#story #socialcapital #haters #hierarchy #status #evil #frame
Jan 22
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Do you struggle to build new habits?
You’re not alone.
With the New Year, many people want to build a new habit… (more…)