Survey and experimental research with nearly 100,000 working adults from around the world find that the happiest people prioritize time over money. People who are willing to give up money to gain more free time, experience more fulfilling social relationships, more satisfying careers, and more joy. Also, the benefits of choosing time over money emerge for the wealthy and less wealthy alike.
Despite this, most people continue striving to make more money. Research shows that once people make more than enough to meet their basic needs, more money does not promote greater happiness. Yet over and over, our choices do not reflect this reality. (Linkedin)
10 things you don’t know about yourself (Scientific American)
Emotions affect so many parts of work, from collaboration to decision-making, motivation, and communication between employees and managers. But in American work culture, “emotional” can be a dirty word. There’s a misconception that expressing feelings is unprofessional or out of place in the office. Take this emotional expression tendency assessment to see if you are an over-emoter or an under-emoter.
Want to make up for past sleep, improve memory recall, and be more alert? Take a 20-minute nap (NIH). Be sure not to take it after 3pm (NIH)
If you want to explore ideas in an environment conducive to good thinking, consider hanging out with “people who are not so much like-minded as like-hearted,” people who are “temperamentally disposed to openness and have habits of listening.” (AK)
You don’t have a career. You have a life. Professionalism has become a destructive myth. You don’t have to leave your conscience behind when you head to work. (Sydney Morning Herald). That’s all fine and good, but what do people do when they can’t be themselves at work (AofM)?
Study reveals number of hours it takes to make a friend: more than 200 hours. This means time spent hanging out, joking around, playing video games and the like. Hours spent working together don’t count as much. (JSPR)
Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer (Aeon)
Be a rebel. Refuse to know it all: Deliberate undecidedness is an intellectual rebellion against the relentless pressure to get with the socially-appropriate program (Quartz)
MANAGEMENT
Productivity isn’t about time management. It’s about attention management. (NYT)
In that vein, making yourself inaccessible from time to time is essential to boosting your focus (NYT)
An “elite” pedigree is not predictive of superior management. Yet these credentials are overrepresented in the CEO biography database. The elite credentials thus benefit the individual and not shareholders. (Institutional Investor)
New employees don’t need to be singled out. They don’t need special support. They need to see that even their most successful colleagues -and their managers!- need help sometimes. (HBR)
We should not be optimizing our data science teams for productivity gains. (…) [T]he goal of data science is not to execute. Rather, the goal is to learn and develop profound new business capabilities. (…) With data science, you learn as you go, not before you go. That’s why data science teams need generalists, not specialists. (HBR)
Do large and small teams differ by type of innovation? Yes, they do. While large teams do advance and develop science, small teams are critical for disrupting it. Both types of teams are essential. Small teams will drive disruption and innovation and larger teams can pick up the ball and engage in greater development of a given area, as part of a virtuous cycle. (Nature)
“Make something people want. Nothing else you do will matter if you’re not making something people want. You can be the best spokesperson, the best fundraiser, the best programmer, but if you aren’t building a product that satisfies a real need, you’ll never succeed.” And other tips on how not to fail – from a veteran VC. (YC)
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist tells managers: Don’t be so quick to go with your gut. (WP)
Firms do not typically disclose information on their costs to produce a good to consumers. But there is evidence of when and why doing so can increase consumers’ purchase interest. (HBS)
This MIT researcher believes that in a VUCA world hypotheses beat goals (SMR)
Interview with Delta CEO who says that leadership is not a popularity contest: “When you go through difficult times, employees can feel like they’re a number, they’re a cost, they’re a means to an end. But no, they are the end themselves.” (NYT)
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