Sunday, March 30, 2014

What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0056

2751.  Common sense is not common action;
2752.  In life, knowledge is only part of the battle.  Without action, knowledge is often meaningless;
2753.  As Aristotle put it, to be excellent we cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellently;
2754.  The action required to follow through on what we know is often the hardest part.  That’s why even though doctors know better than anyone the importance of exercise and diet, 44 percent of them are overweight.  It’s also why organizational gurus are often messy, religious leaders can be blasphemous, and why even some positive psychologists aren’t happy all of the time;
2755.  Positive habits are hard to keep, no matter how commonsensical they might be;
2756.  The New York Times reports that a whopping 80 percent of us break our New Year’s resolutions;
2757.  Even when we feel committed to positive change, sustaining it for any length of time can seem nearly impossible;
2758.  Thomas Jefferson introduced French fries to the U.S. when he served “potatoes served in the French manner” at the White House in 1802;
2759.  There is a biological reason why men and women move at different speeds in relationships.  Sexual contact causes both men and women to secrete a hormone called oxytocin, which intensifies feelings of love and the desire to nest.  But in men, testosterone counteracts its effects;
2760.  Pass on spicy or crunchy tuna rolls because the spice masks the fish’s flavor;
2761.  People can be very self-centered when it comes to their love life.  They only think about themselves and they don’t even consider other people’s feelings, not even their (supposed) friends’;
2762.  Sometimes you have to give up on people, not because you don’t care, but because they don’t;
2763.  If you have anything in your heart other than love, you’ve got to get it out;
2764.  Remind yourself that you will have to incur the misunderstanding and perhaps even the wrath of those around you for having the temerity to march to your own drumbeat.  Don’t take it personally even for one moment;
2765.  There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle;
2766.  Kristin’s favorite color is (probably) red;
2767.  Some orchestras (actually) have a dedicated person to play the triangle;
2768.  There’s (some) acting in opera;
2769.  Being rich is the fruition of ambition;
2770.  On Thursday nights, it’s “Mug Night” at Whitlow’s on Wilson (Whitlows.com) in Clarendon.  Starting at 4 o’clock, you can buy a mug (and a beer) for $5.00 and (select beer) refills are $2.00 thereafter until 9 o’clock.  You can bring back your mug on another “Mug Night” for the $2.00 refills;
2771.  A tendency to act only becomes effectively ingrained in us in proportion to the uninterrupted frequency with which the actions actually occur, and the brain “grows” to their use;
2772.  Habits form because our brain actually changes in response to frequent practice;
2773.  As we progress through our days learning new facts, completing new tasks, and having new conversations, our brains are constantly changing and rewiring to reflect these experiences;
2774.  Scientists now know that the brain remains plastic and malleable well past the age of 20, through even our most senior years.  That means that we have the power to create new habits and then reap the benefits whether we’re 22 or 72;
2775.  The reason so many of us have trouble sustaining change is because we try to rely on willpower;
2776.  The reason willpower is so ineffective at sustaining change is that the more we use it, the more worn-out it gets;
2777.  In general, Americans actually find free time more difficult to enjoy than work;
2778.  For the most part, our jobs require us to use our skills, engage our minds, and pursue our goals – all things that have been shown to contribute to happiness;
2779.  Because there is no “leisure boss” leaning over our shoulder on Sunday mornings telling us we’d better be at the art museum by 9 AM sharp – we often find it difficult to muster the energy necessary to kick-start them.  So we follow the path of least resistance, and that path inevitably leads us to the couch and television.  And because we are “mere bundles of habit,” the more often we succumb to this path, the more difficult it becomes to change directions;
2780.  Studies show that “passive leisure” activities (i.e., watching TV and trolling around on Facebook) are enjoyable and engaging for only about 30 minutes, then they start sapping our energy, creating what psychologists call “psychic entropy” – that listless, apathetic feeling;
2781.  “Active leisure” like hobbies, games, and sports enhance our concentration, engagement, motivation, and sense of enjoyment;
2782.  Studies have found that American teenagers are two and half times more likely to experience elevated enjoyment when engaged in a hobby than when watching TV, and three times more likely when playing a sport;
2783.  Teenagers spend four times as many hours watching TV as they do engaging in sports or hobbies;
2784.  We are drawn – powerfully, magnetically – to those things that are easy, convenient, and habitual, and it is incredibly difficult to overcome this inertia;
2785.  Active leisure is more enjoyable, but it almost always requires more initial effort (i.e., “activation energy”);
2786.  Advertisers and marketers make their living on the path of least resistance.  Ever bought something with a mail-in rebate?  Did you actually mail it in?  Didn’t think so.  That’s why companies offer them.  This is also why magazines send us a free five-week subscription, then automatically start deducting money from our account in the sixth week;
2787.  In the world of marketing, “opt-out” is a genius invention that takes supreme advantage of human psychology.  To “unsubscribe” requires finding the tiny link at the bottom of an e-mail, then clicking through one or two more websites before finally arriving at the desired destination.  The company is betting, often successfully, that this process involves far more energy and effort than most people are willing to expend;
2788.  Whether we’re aware of it or not, default options are everywhere, shaping our choices and our behavior in all areas of our lives;
2789.  At the grocery store, we buy more food off shelves that directly meet our eye and less off those that require us to look up or kneel down.  Every retailer knows this, and you can be sure they exploit it by putting the most expensive brands at eye level;
2790.  Online advertisers now conduct market research with sophisticated eye-tracking machines, determined to develop the perfect place for a banner ad on a website, the place that we will see without expending any additional energy;
2791.  We’re more likely to buy an item of clothing if we can give it a “sensory test run” by touching the fabric, so the most expensive clothes are set at the perfect height for such an experience;
2792.  When your hands are at your side, each table of clothes sits almost exactly at your fingertips, begging to be grabbed;
2793.  The American Management Association reports that employees spend an average of 107 minutes on e-mail a day;
2794.  Research shows that the average employee gets interrupted from their work every 11 minutes, and on each occasion experiences a loss of concentration and flow that takes almost as many minutes to recover from;
2795.  It’s not the sheer number and volume of distractions that gets us into trouble; it’s the ease of access to them;
2796.  The average American watches five to seven hours of television a day;
2797.  Researchers have found that they can cut cafeteria ice cream consumption in half by simply closing the lid of an ice cream cooler.  And that when people are required to wait in another, separate line to purchase chips and candy, far fewer will do so.  In essence, the more effort it takes us to obtain unhealthy food, the less we’ll eat of it, and vice versa;
2798.  Nutritionists recommend that we prepare healthy snacks in advance so that we can simply pull them out of the refrigerator, and why they recommend that when we do eat junk foods, we take out a small portion, then put the rest of the bag away, well out of our reach;
2799.  Our best weapon in the battle against bad habits is simply to make it harder for ourselves to succumb to them;
2800.  Polls show that the number of people willing to be organ donors is quite high, but that most are deterred by the long process of filling out the right forms to do so.  In response, some countries have switched to an opt-out program, which automatically enrolls all citizens as donors.  Anyone is free to withdraw their name, but when staying on the list becomes the default option, most people will do so.  When Spain switched to opt-out, the number of donated organs immediately doubled;