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People don’t like doing things that their friends think is stupid
Potter novels have sold nearly a half a billion copies worldwide. Rowling created one of the best selling fiction franchises of all time, one that captivated kids worldwide, stoked their fertile imaginations and made books cool for a new generation of readers. But despite its official genre as young adult fantasy, the series has also gathered millions of adult fans. The only problem is, many of them wouldn’t be caught…
For which product are you price insensitive?
Gasset, the hidden originator of pragmatist metaphysics, is famous for saying: Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are. Which is certainly true, but let’s not underestimate our human capacity for materialism. Let’s not be naïve in regards to the modern consumerist culture. If you really want to know who you are, don’t just look at what you pay attention to, look…
Let your passion follow you
Which path we take isn’t that important. It’s what we carry with us that matters. And so, instead of the hackneyed advice to follow our passion, we invert the process. We let our passion follow us. Meaning, we make a decision and commit ourselves to a new project or a job or an endeavor. And then, once we start moving, we find various ways to embed our passion into…
A constantly moving happiness machine obsessed with irrelevant objects
I feel brutalized by popular culture. Every day of my life, I’m bombarded with reminders that my better self is waiting in the wings. Pressured with an overwhelming sense of urgency that I’m one purchase away from happiness. Interrupted by the lure of expensive objects that are supposed to be plausible solutions to needs that I don’t even understand. Because apparently, I will feel better about myself once I’ve…
Draw on every experience and thought that you ever had
Schultz publicly claimed that he focused on drawing one good comic strip everyday. That was the secret to his success, the foundation of his legacy and the reason he became the most beloved and circulated cartoonist in history. In fact, at time of his death, his total count was just below eighteen thousand comic strips. Which, if you do the math, is almost exactly one drawing a day, every…
The best sleeping pill on the market
Millions of people battle insomnia night after night. And the causes are varied. Sometimes it’s a legitimate medical problem, sometimes it’s a sleep disorder, and sometimes it’s a combination of unhealthy bedtime rituals that interfere with quality rest. I have a friend who struggles with sleep on semi regular basis. And although he’d prefer to blame the tiredness on some mysterious and uncontrollable condition he’s been stricken with, he…
The most effective overnight therapy known to man
Many of the things we need have breathtaking simplicity to them. But we educate ourselves out of that. We confuse complexity with progress, mistaking sophistication for accuracy, deciding that the solution to our problem should have multiple levels and moving parts. That’s the way the human brain works. We feel naked with a simple idea. Take conventional marriage wisdom. Every newlywed couple is warmed, never to go to bed angry. …
Love means sharing the burden
I have a friend who suffers from mental illness. Her daily life is littered with psychological triggers. And so, part of her recovery practice is to avoid stimuli that might trigger her addictive behavior. One of the ways she accomplishes this is by deputizing her husband to screen her emails. Every day, he sifts through her inbox, searching for urgent or important messages that require his wife’s attention, but also…
The predicament of thinking perfect too late
The easiest thing to do is to prosecute ourselves for crimes past. To feel regretful for not taking a stand when we were young. When the reality is, we were so innocent and naïve and trusting back then. We didn’t know any better. We didn’t have words and names for our feelings at that age. Our language was far too small and unsophisticated to contain those experiences. And so, as…
Remind people that they’re worth doing things for
The secret to a good practical joke is time, effort and thoughtfulness. Showing someone you care about that they’re worth having fun with and bringing joy to. On the other hand, loosening the cap from the pepper shaker right before your friend spices her soup, that’s not funny, that’s just cruel. And unoriginal. And it spoils the meal. There’s no intention of attention behind that. You’re just being a…
