Psychology Archives - Page 3 of 22

This Winery Makes Bank With a Facepalm-Simple Packaging Trick

January 18, 2021August 7, 2024 Nik

I come from Rheinland-Pfalz. That is not just a long and complicated name for Germany’s sixth-largest state, it is also a door to the infinite world of wine. Some 10,000 winemakers produce 65% of all German wine in my home state — and that’s about as much as I know about wine.

What I do know is good marketing when I see it, and I can tell you that out of these 10,000 winemakers, one has completely, unequivocally dominated grocery store aisles for the past few years. Their name is Emil Bauer & Sons, and what they’ve done is as genius as only the simplest ideas can be.

Before I tell you their marketing trick (and it really is just marketing on top of an already good product), you must know: selling wine in a German grocery store, particularly in Rheinland-Pfalz, is not an easy ball game. In most shops, the wine section looks like this:

A wine section in a shop. — Image via Wasgau AG

It’s not like your sauvignon blanc will be one of three white wines on display. No sir. You are going up against an armada of fermented grape juice from all over the world. Italy, France, Spain — New Zealand, for Pete’s sake! Your stuff better be good.

The Stoics’ 7 Functions of the Clear Mind

January 15, 2021August 7, 2024 Nik

The best reason to practice personal hygiene is that a clean body leads to a pure soul.

It’s not the explanation my dentist gave me the other day, but regardless, at nearly 30 years old, she finally got me to floss. “Your gums are at risk,” she said. I have flossed every day since. One, because I’d like to keep my teeth until I die, and two, if I don’t have a clean mouth, how can I expect good things to come out when I open it?

Neither the importance of dental care nor its effect on our mental state is new to us, yet more than half of Americans are short at least one tooth, and more than 10% have lost all of them. That’s 40 million Americans without teeth.

In one of his many post-lecture discussions transcribed in Discourses, Stoic philosopher Epictetus talked about “washing your teeth” — in 108 AD. He also used cleanliness of the body as an analogy for — and precursor to — purity of the soul.

Don’t Waste Your Rock Bottom

January 12, 2021August 10, 2024 Nik

On August 1st, 1976, Formula One racing legend Niki Lauda crashed at the Nürburgring. In an instant, his car burst into flames, his helm flew off, and he was trapped in the wreckage.

Other drivers were able to pull him from the car, but because of the burns he suffered and toxic fumes he inhaled, he fell into a coma. A priest showed up to perform his last rites but, luckily, Niki survived.

When he woke up, he was in pain. He had lost half his right ear, and his face would never be the same. Just shy of a miracle, Niki recovered in six weeks — and got back into his car. He missed a mere two races of the season, and yet, to add insult to injury, he lost the title of world champion to his arch nemesis, James Hunt, by one point.

Imagine how that must have felt — to nearly die and then come back — and lose by one point. For Niki Lauda, this was it: rock bottom. He had been destroyed physically and psychologically. What did Niki do?

On the first day of the next season, he showed up for practice. He drove. He studied. Niki tweaked his car. And by the end of the 1977 season, he became world champion.

The universe works in mysterious ways. Common sense will tell you: Wow, here’s a guy who succeeded despite his setbacks. Here’s an interesting question: What if he succeeded because of them?

Understand Temporal Discounting To Make Better Career Decisions

January 6, 2021August 7, 2024 Nik

Would you rather have an apple today or two apples tomorrow?

If I give you this choice, you’ll probably start thinking about how much you like apples, how hungry you are right now, and what your meal schedule looks like today. It’s tricky, isn’t it?

If I offer you a slight variation of this choice, however, you’ll immediately know your preference: Would you rather have an apple in a year or two apples in a year and one day? That one is obvious.

Why is it that one of these feels difficult, while the other one feels easy? The premise is identical: Wait one more day, get 100% more apples.

The answer lies in a concept called temporal discounting, which, while almost irrelevant in the apples example, can have a great impact on your life — specifically your career.

Don’t Stop Living When No One’s Watching

December 29, 2020August 6, 2024 Nik

One cold December night, I was sitting alone in my apartment. It was too late to be productive, too early to sleep, and I was too hungry to do either. The solution? Dumplings. Oh, how I longed for some delicious dough bags.

I messaged a few friends to see if anyone wanted to go. “I’m not in town.” “I have a date.” “Sorry, I already ate.” Quickly, discouragement set in. “Maybe, I should just stay in,” I thought. “I still have food at home. It’s cold anyway.”

I shook it off. I got dressed, walked to the restaurant, sat down, ordered, and within a few minutes, I was munching on a dozen Asian delicacies. I even got a free mango pudding for dessert. Score!

This may seem like an innocuous everyday occurrence, a non-event, really, but in hindsight, I realized: This was one of the many encounters we all have with a dire, devastating force called “potential regret.” I had won this round but made a shocking discovery:

Sometimes, I’m afraid of doing what I want because I am alone.

You’ll Never Love Your Past as Much as You Love Your Future

December 28, 2020August 10, 2024 Nik

A 15-year-old’s greatest wish is to be 18, and yet, most 21-year-olds will say their 18-year-old selves were kind of dumb — even though both are just three years away from that age.

No matter how you change the numbers, this phenomenon will apply almost universally in one form or another.

When I was 8, I desperately wanted to be 10, like my neighbor who seemed so much stronger and smarter than I was at the time. When I was 10, I didn’t feel any different — maybe because I had no 8-year-old neighbor to compare myself to.

When I was 20, I thought by 30, I’d have life figured out. It was only at 23 that I looked around and wondered: “Why is nothing happening?” Nothing was happening because I wasn’t doing. I started right then, and, seven years later, I’m still going. I will turn 30 in two months, and now my 20-year-old self looks like an idiot.

I’m sure in my 30s, I’ll think my 40s will be much better, only to realize I’m still nearly as clueless about life at 45, yet not without that same patronizing smile back at my 30-year-old self that I now hold whenever I think of my early 20s.

Why is that? Why do we enjoy looking forward so much yet can only laugh and shake our heads when we look back? Well, in a nutshell: You’ll never love your past as much as you love your future. No one ever does.

5 Ways To Practice Detachment, the Skill That’ll Get You Through the Day

December 14, 2020August 5, 2024 Nik

Whenever our elementary school teacher handed out homework, a murmur went through the crowd: “Ugh!” “Oh no!” “Not again!” Inevitably, one kid would shout, “We don’t want to!” and, without fail, she would say: “Then you’ll just have to do it without wanting.”

Part of life is that life sometimes sucks. To accept this and not be swayed by it is a skill you can learn. That skill is called detachment.

Detachment has many benefits, but the biggest one by far is that it’ll get you through any day, no matter how bad that day gets. Even when things look bleak, detachment allows you to go about your day — to go on, and that’s the part that matters.

At its core, detachment is not adding more suffering in imagination to what you endure in reality. It’s not about disconnecting from said reality or ignoring your emotions; the opposite is the case. When you stay in the moment and acknowledge your feelings, it becomes easier to move past whatever that moment brings and however you feel in it.

Here are five ways to practice detachment. I hope they’ll help you get through even the toughest of days.

5 Websites That Will Give You a Break From Pandemic Fatigue

December 9, 2020August 5, 2024 Nik

Yesterday, I listened to the radio in Japan for 30 minutes. I also looked out someone’s backyard window in Romania, got a hug from a stranger, and spent a few minutes on the moon.

I did these things thanks to the internet, and I did them because, after nine months of Covid madness, my “surge capacity” has been depleted. Professor Ann Masten from the University of Minnesota explains the term as follows:

Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different — the disaster itself stretches out indefinitely.

When the virus first hit, I did what most people did: I rallied. I bought masks, stopped seeing people, and started working from home. I adjusted to the new normal, and, for the majority of nine months, that seemed to work just fine. But, as Tara Haelle writes: “How do you adjust to an ever-changing situation where the ‘new normal’ is indefinite uncertainty?”

The answer is, “You don’t,” and so last week, my strong run finally came to an end. I caught myself thinking: “I wish I could go back to the library.” I was sad, disappointed, and furious. Why did Germany handle the situation so poorly? Why do we get stricter and stricter rules, none of which seem to work? How can I go to a pool party in Taiwan but not meet two friends for coffee here? It was a mix of anger and depression, two of the five stages of grief.

Instead of overriding those feelings, I decided to accept them. I was tired — worn out from nine months of surging — and so I let the wave of pandemic fatigue wash over me. For the next few days, I didn’t do much. I mostly ran on autopilot, and, sometimes, feeling melancholic and unmotivated is okay.

When the wrong wires cross and sparks fly in your brain, don’t send more power through the grid. Take out the fuse. Let it cool off before it explodes.

Yesterday, I finally turned a corner — to Reddit where I found a treasure trove of cool websites. Some of them were useful, others too niche for my needs, but a small selection showed me something I had almost forgotten: They made the world feel whole again. They made it seem big and small, active and peaceful, exciting and wholesome at the same time.

Here are those websites. I hope they’ll give you a moment of pandemic relief.

You Don’t Get Rich by Taking Profits

December 4, 2020August 5, 2024 Nik

“Never sell.” That’s the motto Carter Thomas wishes he had adopted 20 years ago.

In 2003, Carter took all the money he’d ever made from his summer jobs as a lifeguard — a respectable $18,000 — and bought Apple stock. That was a smart decision.

It was not a smart decision to sell all of it two months later for “beer money.” After stock splits and price increases, Carter’s stock would be worth more than $10 million today.

Looking back on the experience, Carter has learned a simple but profound lesson most people — like him — initially gloss over as they try to build wealth:

“All the reasons why the huge, f-you money hasn’t come in is just because I’ve sold stuff. It’s never because I didn’t buy the right stuff. I’ve always bought the right stuff at the right time — I’ve just never held it long enough.”

While not at such scale, I’ve made the same mistake many times, and so, if only to myself, I’d like to issue a reminder:

You don’t get rich by taking profits. You get rich by owning valuable things.

44 Funny Shower Thoughts That Will Snap Your Mind in Half

December 1, 2020August 10, 2024 Nik

On any given day, your brain is either growing or deteriorating. There is no such thing as “maintaining” your mind.

When you don’t challenge your brain, that day, your mind will shrink a little. When you solve a problem or entertain a new idea, your mental ability will grow.

If you do the crossword every day, at first, it’ll make your brain sweat. Eventually, you’ll have memorized all the coded prompts, and it’ll only be a rote memory exercise. So how can you keep stretching your mind?

The answer is not to read a book a day or work crazy hours. Your brain would soon overload and demand a long break. Neither complete stagnation nor excessive learning is the answer.

What you can and should find time for, however, is five minutes a day to engage with new ideas. That’s enough to get new combinations of neurons to fire together, and that’s what mental growth is all about.

Ryan Lombard can help you do just that. Ryan has a series he calls “Thoughts That Will Snap Your Mind in Half.” So far, he’s made 20 parts. Here are the first eight, totaling 44 funny shower thoughts, ideas, and mind-bending questions.

Some made me think deeply, some just made me laugh, and some I didn’t understand at all (yet). I’m sure a few of them will send your mind in new directions.

Here are Ryan Lombard’s 44 “Thoughts That Will Snap Your Mind in Half.”

Category: Psychology