In this week's Ask Dan column, Dan answers a reader's question about a phenomenon known as the perfection premium. Dear Dan, Every time my sister hosts a dinner party, she insists that every last tidbit of food she serves be homemade. This high standard is wearing on her. To make her life easier, I proposed … Continue reading Do You Suffer from the Perfection Premium?
But once again, my hopes were dashed. But I'm used to it. It's happened dozens of times over the years. But I was hoping this time would be different. I've daydreamed about what it would be like, sometimes in quite a bit of detail. My wife and I have talked about what we would do. … Continue reading I Was Really Hoping This Would Be the One
A new survey of 2,000 Americans finds four in 10 people have more do-it-yourself failures than they do successes. The average person estimates that it takes them five hours of trial and error before quitting their project and calling in a professional to help. So I have a simple solution to this. Don't even try. … Continue reading How to Avoid a Disaster, and Save Four Hours by Doing So
In 2014, Chinese authorities introduced physical-education requirements that included a national jump-rope exam for boys and girls from first through sixth grades. To pass, students must complete minimum numbers of skips a minute, and failure can trip up an otherwise promising academic trajectory. Top officials see the activity as an accessible, low-cost way to help … Continue reading Sorry. No Scholarship for You. You’re Too Slow at Jumping Rope.
This post is a summary of an event I attended at Villanova tonight with my wife and son which combined two of my favorite activities at Villanova- student a cappella groups and the Special Olympics. I've written before about how big the Special Olympics are at Nova. For one weekend in November, our campus hosts … Continue reading AcaSPOlooza
Yesterday I wrote about my attempt to take an online quiz on well-being, but I never got the results. That led me to write a blog post about, well, nothing. I figured I check for my results one more time, and there was the email. It was in my daily quarantined email message, which summarizes … Continue reading Literally, a Blog Post about Nothing, Part Two
I've often said my blog is like the Seinfeld show, in that I also reap millions of dollars in royalties from my old blog posts. Actually, it's more like Seinfeld because most of my blogs are about nothing, and have no redeeming qualities. And many of the comments I have received over the years offer … Continue reading Literally, a Blog Post about Nothing
Today is my 64th birthday and the first song that came to mind was the Beatles "When I'm 64". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTunqv1Xt4 When I'm Sixty-Four is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was one of the first songs written by McCartney, who … Continue reading Music Monday: It’s No Longer Hypothetical, I Am 64. Will You Still Read Me?
I am happy to see that Dan Ariely still has his biweekly column in the Wall Street Journal, so I guess no fallout yet from the issues I had written about before. Even better from my perspective, this week's column introduced a new psychologic term I had never heard before - the End of History … Continue reading The End of History Illusion
The old adage of "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" may soon be replaced with a "nature prescription." With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the health benefits of spending more time outdoors, a growing faction of the U.S. medical community is prescribing time outside the same way they would traditional medication. The idea of writing … Continue reading Take 4,000 Steps and Call Me in the Morning
Borden's Blather 