Quote of the day:
We become matchers, striving to preserve an equal balance of giving and getting. Matchers operate on the principle of fairness: when they help others, they protect themselves by seeking reciprocity. If you’re a matcher, you believe in tit for tat.
~ADAM M. GRANT, author of Give and Take.
EDUCATION
The techies who are hacking education by homeschooling their kids, Wired | Tweet
In recent years, Peter Thiel has launched a broadside against higher education, and Sir Ken Robinson’s lecture,“How Schools Kill Creativity,” has become the most popular TED Talk of all-time, with 31 million views. Now, all those strains are coming together to create a new phenomenon: the techie homeschooler.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
There’s a difference between being generous and being a doormat [Give and Take], Science of Us | Tweet
The givers who become doormats are the people who say “yes” to all the people all the time, to all of the requests. … They’re also people, I think, that try to help in too many different ways and at too many different times.
RUNNING
Too much running over the long term can be bad for your health, Big Think | Tweet
Too much of a good thing can be harmful and that includes exercising.Nathan Collins from Pacific Standard summarized a 12-year study that found people who did strenuous workouts died at the same rate as couch potatoes. Don’t lose heart, though. Exercise is still good for you — just in moderation.
MOTIVATION
Keeping yourself creatively motivated [The Motivation Manifesto
], Creative Something | Tweet
What does it take to consistently be creatively motivated or inspired? Sometimes you can’t keep yourself motivated, no matter how you might try. Though sometimes you can.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Seven habits of organized people [The 7 Secrets of the Prolific
], FastCo | Tweet
Organized people aren’t born; they’re built. Here are the habits that you can cultivate to be just like them.
BUSINESS
Why Coca-Cola wants to sell the world expensive ‘science milk’, The Washington Post | Tweet
In the coming weeks, the world’s largest beverage company will begin rolling out its latest innovation across the United States: a new, high-end, highly modified, and—yes—much more expensive dairy product. The new offering, which is called Fairlife, will look and taste like milk, but otherwise it’ll be pretty different from the average white stuff. Fairlife is low in sugar, high in protein, and free of lactose.
TECHNOLOGY
Japanese bank introduces robot workers to deal with customers in branches, The Guardian | Tweet
Japan’s biggest bank is preparing to unveil robot employees with a human touch. Nao, a 58-centimetre (1ft 11)-tall humanoid developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics – a subsidiary of the Japanese telecoms and internet giant SoftBank – will begin work on a trial basis at one or two branches of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group from April.
AMAZON
Inside Amazon Prime, Fortune | Tweet
Ten years ago, the e-commerce company introduced what has become a cornerstone of its business. Although the unlimited shipping service has tens of millions of members, it is a big money loser.
WRITING
The Art of Story: When telling trumps showing, Writers Helping Writers | Tweet
Show, Don’t Tell. This is something we say quite a bit at WHW. As most of you know, our thesaurus collections are packed with inspiring ways to help you ‘show’ so you can craft compelling fiction that readers feel they can almost see, hear, taste, smell and touch.
Subplots, The Kill Zone | Tweet
One of the most dreaded parts of a book to write is the middle, or what I call the “muddle”. Beginnings are fun and somewhat easy, and endings can be, too. But the tar pit in the middle can bog a writer (and reader) down, sometimes to the point of no recovery. One method of beefing up the middle is the use of subplots.