Blog

Mar 11, 2024 1 min read Blog

Happiness and Meaning Are Different Things

It’s an easy mistake to think that a happy life is a meaningful life. But research by Baumeister and others shows that meaning comes from different things than happiness.

“Their findings suggest that meaning (separate from happiness) is not connected with whether one is healthy, has enough money, or feels comfortable in life, while happiness (separate from meaning) is. More specifically, the researchers identified five major differences between a happy life and a meaningful one.”

The five differences are fascinating, but I’ll just encourage you to follow the link to find out more.

Is a Happy Life Different from a Meaningful One? | Greater Good Science Center

Mar 8, 2024 1 min read Blog

The TED talk will never be the same

Back in the late 90’s as a college student, I read Wired magazine religiously every month. My brothers did, too. It felt like seeing into the future.

I was surprised some years later when my younger brother told me that he stopped reading Wired. He’d realized that the cool inventions he’d been reading about almost never materialized. I’d never thought of that, but knew he was right. It was aspirational vapor, amazing to see but never real enough to be solid.

The TED talk in the 00’s was the next version of that. This article is worth a read just for the word “inspiresting.”

Back then, around a decade ago, I watched those articulate, audacious, composed people talk about how they were building robots that would eat trash and turn it into oxygen, or whatever, and I felt hopeful about the future. But the trash-eating robots never arrived. With some distance, now, from a world in which TED seemed to offer a bright path forward, it’s time to ask: what exactly is TED? And what happened to the future it envisioned?

What Was the TED Talk? - The Drift

(via Dense Discovery, a favorite newsletter)

Mar 7, 2024 1 min read Blog

Why “Follow Your Passion” Is Bad Advice

I use Dr. Cech’s research in one of my classes, and this article is a nice summary by her on how it can be perilous to “Follow Your Passion.” I wish we could scrub the advice from every graduation speech given every year. There are better ways to inspire the next generation.

Yet, what I found is that following one’s passion does not necessarily lead to fulfillment, but is one of the most powerful cultural forces perpetuating overwork. I also found that promoting the pursuit of one’s passion helps perpetuate social inequalities due to the fact that not everyone has the same economic resources to allow them to pursue their passion with ease. What follows are five major pitfalls of the passion principle that I discovered through my research.

5 drawbacks to following your passion | Cech

Mar 6, 2024 1 min read Blog

Humility in Eight Ways

Humility is often seen as a single trait, but this article makes the case that there are different kinds of humility, and they serve different purposes. As a parent, I could have used more familial humility a lot of times as my sons can attest.

We’re also learning that there are many different kinds of humility—and that each one can have limitations…Here’s an overview of eight varieties of humility—and of all the ways they can keep us grounded even in the face of injustices.

The Eight Kinds of Humility That Can Help You Stay Grounded | Ravi Chandra

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