An Epicurean and a Stoic enter a bar. The Epicurean asks for the wine list and orders the most expensive bottle of Champagne. 'Why not?' She says. 'Life is all about experiencing pleasure'. The Stoic balks at the cost and orders a soft drink. He admonishes her. 'People are starving…
Anyone interested in science knows that it takes carefully constructed experiments to produce results. Or does it? You might be surprised, as I was, to learn that between 30 and 50% of all scientific discoveries occur by accident. But there is something extraordinary about these accidental discoveries. They may have…
Here's an exercise in Thinking vs Feeling. My friend called me the other day. She was upset with her manager. My friend works for a car dealership. The manager had to make an employee redundant. There was a choice between two salespeople. The manager fired the employee that had a…
Do you think you have a lucky life or you are beset with bad luck? Did you know that I can tell whether you are lucky or not, just by the way you respond to the following scenario? Read the following story and then answer A or B. 'You walk…
If you have ever watched a true-crime programme or been interested in deviant personalities, then you are familiar with certain personality traits. We often hear of the narcissist or the psychopath, but we rarely hear about the Machiavellian Personality. Yet, Machiavellism forms a third of the Dark Triad, along with…
Whether you are revising for exams or learning for the pleasure of it, it’s hard to downplay the advantages of fast learning. After all, we are all busy, it makes sense to be smart with our time. So can science help us to be a fast learner? Back when I…
If there’s one person that can tell you about entitled parents, it is former soccer coach Avery Krut. Entitled Parenting and the Youth Soccer Coach In November 2017, a story broke from a Hollywood reporter. It shone a very dim light on parents living in the leafy suburbs of upscale…
Anyone who has completed the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI) will be familiar with its testing method. You answer a questionnaire based on your preferences between two psychological choices. You end up with a 4-letter personality type. But can one letter really make a difference? Let’s look at INFP vs INFJ.…
If I asked you to name the smartest person who ever lived, you might say Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, or someone like Stephen Hawking. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t know a guy called William James Sidis, and yet, this man had an estimated IQ of 250 to 300. The…
If you’ve done something wrong, it is natural to apologise. But, whilst some people find it hard to say sorry, others get into the habit of saying sorry too much. It’s easy to make assumptions about people who never say sorry when they are wrong. We assume they are arrogant,…
