Quote of the day
There’s a 2005 study that looked at Olympic athletes participating in one-on-one “combat sports” like boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling, and freestyle wrestling. The rules of the Olympics stipulate that one competetor is randomly assigned a blue outfit while the other gets red. Thus it was a great opportunity for a natural experiment on the effects of uniform color on performance. The researchers found that those wearing red uniforms won a statistically significantly larger portion of their matches.
~ADAM ALTER, author of Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave
NUTRITION
Vitamin B.S., The Atlantic | Tweet
How people came to believe the myth that nutritional supplements could make them into better, healthier versions of themselves.
→Vitamania: Our Obsessive Quest For Nutritional Perfection
SCIENCE
Is DNA the language of the book of life?, Nautilus | Tweet
When we talk about genes, we often use expressions inherited from a few influential geneticists and evolutionary biologists, including Francis Crick, James Watson, and Richard Dawkins. These expressions depict DNA as a kind of code telling bodies how to form
→The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design
PSYCHOLOGY
Red vs. Blue: Which should you choose?, Psychology Today | Tweet
Has anyone researched whether playing on red team or the blue gives advantage?
→Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave
EDUCATION
Can online classrooms help the developing world catch up?, The Verge | Tweet
In his foundation’s 2015 annual letter, Bill Gates describes a future in which world-class education is only a few taps away, for anyone in the world. “Before a child even starts primary school, she will be able to use her mom’s smartphone to learn her numbers and letters, giving her a big head start,” he speculates.
SUCCESS
The difference between successful and very successful people, Knote | Tweet
What does it mean to be successful? Most people strive for success in their working life, and are constantly in pursuit of the next promotion, the next client, or the next pay raise. People often take pride in saying “I’m so, so busy at work!” as if busy is automatically equivalent to successful. We often mistake intensity for productivity and satisfaction. But if we examine the very successful people of the business world (think Shark Tank), there are often surprising differences between the successful and the highly successful powerhouses we all admire.
→Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
→The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Skip the boring business plan. Focus on this strategy instead, Entrepreneur | Tweet
Business plans serve a very specific purpose: to demonstrate where you currently are and where you would like to be. In simple terms, how you will get from point A to point B. The problem is that as with any startup, you have very little information as to the best way to reach Point B. Startups don’t even know who their customers are or what their product should be.
MARKETING
How brands use crowdfunding for kick-ass marketing, Medium | Tweet
Marketing as the primary reason for crowdfunding is gaining considerable traction with celebrities, fortune 500 companies, and venture-backed startups alike: those who can’t even pretend to be in financial binds worthy of public contribution.
→The Crowdfunding Bible: How To Raise Money For Any Startup, Video Game Or Project
How the boxer brief got into American’s pants, Bloomberg | Tweet
Sexy marketing, shrinking pants, and changing shopping habits created the nation’s dominant underwear
WRITING
Is your writing routine effective? with Tracy Collins, Romance University | Tweet
Ask any writer about the biggest challenge they’ve faced and chances are the answer will have to do with the lack of organization.
→Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life
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Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
A weird way to beat writer’s block, The Write Practice
| Tweet
I recently visited with a new writer over coffee. She confessed, almost embarrassed, “I’ve written on and off for years. Well, sort of…but, now I’m reallytrying to get serious about my novel, except I keep quitting. It’s really frustrating. How do you ummm,” she looked away, then back at me again, “How do you fight writer’s block?” That’s a great question, and the answer is…