Life

Bennett Notes

People Who Are Obsessed With Success and Prestige

What does it look like to be obsessed with success and prestige? It probably looks a lot like me at the moment. A guy who …

Derek Sivers

Time is personal. Your year changes when your life changes.

A new day begins when I wake up, not at midnight. Midnight means nothing to me. It’s not a turning point. Nothing …

Wired

People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities—Until They Live in One

Removing cars from urban areas means lower carbon emissions, less air pollution, and fewer road traffic accidents. So why are …

Ness Labs

Rediscovering Ikigai: What We Got Wrong and How to Find Meaning in Life

One unique Japanese concept is the idea of ikigai, which can be roughly translated to reason for being (or “raison d’être” in …

The Wall Street Journal

What Gen Z Will Lose if They Don’t Have Friendships at Work

As more young people work remotely, they aren’t forming close relationships with colleagues. That will have a profound impact …

The Atlantic

Overwhelmed? Just Say ‘No.’

The science of how to stop saying yes to everything—and be happier.

The Guardian

My experiment in phonelessness was a failure. It also changed my life

Constant connectivity is a new expectation, exhausting to meet. My worst fear about turning my phone off has been missing a …

CNBC

Why can’t today’s young adults leave the nest? Blame high housing costs

Nearly one-third, or 31%, of Gen Z are living with their parents because they can’t afford to buy or rent their own space, …

The fresh start effect

People have been doing New Years Resolutions forever. You’re more likely to run a marathon at a milestone age like 30, …

Craig Mod

The Walk and Talk: Everything We Know

A walk-and-talk is a moveable salon. A small group of people walk together for a week, having casual conversations …

Willem's Blog

Hello, stranger

While enjoying my fresh wok lunch in Amsterdam, I noticed something odd: other folks coming in for something to eat ignored …

Reddit

Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

I’m thinking back to the early-American homesteading days when a man could venture into uncharted territory and make a …

The Guardian

'People are happier in a walkable neighborhood': the US community that banned cars

A new housing development outside Phoenix is looking towards European cities for inspiration and shutting out the cars. So …

Travel + Leisure

It's Cheaper to Live on a Boat Than Rent an Apartment in These U.S. Cities

Maybe it’s time for your own personal floating oasis.

The New Yorker

Why Walking Helps Us Think

Since at least the time of peripatetic Greek philosophers, many other writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection …

The Economist

The U-bend of life

Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older.

Sasha Chapin

In praise of blowing up your life

Most people are tremendously resistant to change, capable of coming up with countless ingenious stories about why something …

Hacker News

Where have you found community outside of work?

Asking for myself and those who are looking for what good communities often provide: feeling of connection, purpose, a place …

Vox

How companies sell you on the promise of "community"

American life is hostile to community building, but we’re more desperate for it than ever.

EL PAÍS

How the American Dream convinces people loneliness is normal

American lore is full of tales of the lone cowboy, the rugged individualist who will do what needs to be done. But, in …

NPR

Would you live next to co-workers for the right price? This company is betting yes

So a growing number of employers around the country have decided to build their own housing for workers, mostly for them to …

Here & Now

You're not uncool. Making friends as an adult is just hard

According to Franco, the key to building a community of friends is setting up planned interactions, like regular group events …

Quanta Magazine

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact.

The Atlantic

How My Wife and I Took Back Our Sundays

We have an agreement: One day a week, we do absolutely nothing. In a society obsessed with productivity, this is harder than …

Nautilus

How Mental Time Travel Can Make Us Better People

Kindness lives in the future-present.

Bloomberg

Humans Hold the Key to Collaboration No Matter How Good the Software Tools

What the management theory “forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning” can teach us.

Hacker News

What is the best advice you received in 2022?

I am a believer I can learn from anywhere and I thought I can ask HN folks to share what they learned or received advice that …

Guardian

'I want to savour every word': the joy of reading slowly

Bragging rights seem to go to people who devour books, but, as this impatient reader found, turning the pages over many days …

Neel Nanda

Intentionally Making Close Friends

One of the greatest sources of joy in my life are my close friends. People who bring excitement and novelty into my life. Who …