Sometimes weirdness does pay

I’ve always wanted to believe that you could get enormous advantage in life just by willing to be weirder than other people. And when I read about people like Amos Tversky (leave movies early! go jogging in your underwear! throw away your mail unopened!) it almost seems true. But sadly,...

Some obvious-in-retrospect thoughts

When you shift from being managed to also sometimes managing others, you have a predictable shift in perspective and a lot of obvious-in-retrospect insights. In the spirit of “saying obvious things is good” here are a few. Be honest Since you’re a fallible human, you will screw things up. And...

After decades of research, we now have a huge body of studies and meta-reviews to summarize it. What do they say?

I was wrong about gratitude. I thought it was a guaranteed way to become happier and went around proclaiming we should be thankful because: "Hokey, unfashionable techniques like practicing gratitude turn out to have strong scientific evidence behind them." Sorry about that. In my defense, the internet is rife with...

Tracking my cognitive performance for a year

A year ago, I started playing puzzle storm. This is a short game where you try to rapidly solve as many chess puzzles as you can in a few minutes.

People don't seem to try very hard to make themselves happier. Why not?

Everyone I know is scheming for the future. They've got big goals and get up every day and work like mad to try to achieve them. I've always found something odd about that: Despite all this effort, people don't seem to think too much about the specifics of what would...

Nine observations about what happens when you eat only potatoes

You've probably heard about the potato diet. If not, here it is: 1. Eat potatoes. 2. As many as you want. 3. Oil and salt are OK. 4. Don't eat other stuff. I thought this sounded delightfully absurd so I tried it for a few weeks. Here are some observations....

An analogy between coat racks, desire paths, arguing, vacuuming, reading, social media, drinking, vacations, and colonoscopies.

You learn a lot about people from their bedrooms. Some have TVs or books or laptops. Some have blackout curtains or stuffed animals or bottles of pills. But, vast as human experience is, one thing is consistent: Everyone has once-worn clothes strewn on the furniture. Why? In one sense, it's...

How much do statins extend lifespan? An analysis based on a meta-analysis of six peer-reviewed papers.

It’s hard to say how much running increases lifespan. To test it, you should take thousands of people, tell half to run, and then follow everyone for years while making sure they follow their instructions. That’s not easy, and even if you did it, you still have to worry: Did...

We could be a lot better at taking care of ourselves.

Here are some things I'd like to know about how to live my life: 1. If I eat Brussels sprouts for dinner tonight instead of pizza, how much longer do I live (in expectation, in minutes)? 2. What should I eat to avoid getting tired after lunch? 3. If I...

Why you shouldn't torture yourself when training to run.

I used to think the people I saw running were insane. They were confused about life. Whatever the benefits of running, nothing could justify that much suffering. Runners were cut from a different cloth. They had a strength of will I lacked. I would never be one of them.