It's the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. this week, and the New York Times had a Back Story feature article about some highlights of the competition. One fun fact - the first winner, back in 1925, received $500 in gold. This year's winner will receive $40,000. (While that may seem like a big … Continue reading 13-Year Old Showed “a Lot of Integrity”; Why Can’t Our Leaders →

Warning: If you don't have 20 minutes to waste, you may want to skip this post; I can't take responsibility for your getting sucked into watching pressure washing videos. Today's Wall Street Journal had a cover page story about how popular pressure washing videos have become. Let me repeat that. Today's Wall Street Journal had … Continue reading Pressure Washing Videos Go Viral??!! →

Memorial Day - a day for remembering the people who died while serving in our country's armed forces. This video captures the solemnity of the occasion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfe4TxvUOiw And here are George H.W. Bush's beautiful words from today: "... am forever grateful not only to those patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation -- … Continue reading Memorial Day →

16 years ago this past Wednesday, shares in Netflix began trading publicly for the first time. When I saw the story, it showed a picture of the iconic red envelopes that the DVDs used to be mailed in. I had completely forgotten about those envelopes, and now just think of Netflix as offering movies online. … Continue reading To All You Movie Lovers Out There – Too Bad You Didn’t Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is →

Dan Ariely is one of my favorite behavioral economists, and the author of a semi-regular Wall Street Journal column featuring readers' questions and his answers. Today's column evoked some strong negative reaction from readers, and I thought I'd share one of them with you. Here is the original question, along with Dan's response: Hi, Dan, … Continue reading Dan Ariely Gets Some Unwelcome Tips about Tipping from His Readers →

A little less than a year ago, I wrote a blog, "Why Don't Houses Have Escalators", and offered what I thought was a compelling argument as to why escalators are much better than an elevator in a house, and perhaps should become standard equipment, replacing the traditional staircase. For some reason, it has been one … Continue reading I’m Kind of a Big Deal in the World of House Escalators, and There Could Be a HUGE Payoff →

The YouTube ads leaderboard showcases the top ads that people choose to watch each month. The company also compiled a special edition of the YouTube ads leaderboard which showcased the top 10 global ads of 2017. Somehow I had missed this listing of the top video ads of the year when it was first released, but … Continue reading YouTube’s Top Ad of the Year (and Month) →

"We found that the more intellectually humble students were more motivated to learn and more likely to use effective metacognitive strategies, like quizzing themselves to check their own understanding. They also ended the year with higher grades in math." The paragraph above comes from a study conducted by Tenelle Porter and her colleagues. The study … Continue reading The Understated Power of Humility (Would You Have Expected Anything Else?) →

One of the most popular categories on YouTube is "how to" videos. Some of the more popular ones include how to kiss, how to tie a tie, and how to unclog a toilet. But does watching those videos actually help you to be able to do the task? Well, it depends. A recent study in … Continue reading Do “How To” Videos Help? Well… →

There are nearly 2.5 million people in the U.S. named Smith, and nearly 2 million named Johnson, according to the 2010 Census. But those numbers are dwarfed by the most popular family name in America. Care to take a guess what that name might be? The picture above is somewhat of a hint. According to … Continue reading The Most Popular Name in the U.S. Will Surprise, and Depress, You →