Quote of the Day - Me

'Human Dignity' seems like weak wording for the issue of who gets to summer in Provence and who gets to die of dysentery before reaching adulthood.


Look for me in the comments at http://factsandotherstubbornthings.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-inequality.html

That's it. I'm Buying a Motorcycle.

http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/two-interesting-examples-of.html

Facing Fears

Brian Caplan discusses Exposure Therapy.

The exposure therapy approach to dealing with fears makes a lot of sense to me. As a matter of fact, I think people are wired to do this (to some extent) automatically. One example is dreaming repeatedly about a traumatic event. Another is obsession with a worry.

Effect of Children on Happiness

Interesting post by Brian Caplan. Seems much more intuitively correct than the other research he cites that suggests that children hurt overall happiness.

The Non-Obvious Path to Well-Being

Hot shot researcher Justin Wehr applies what he knows about analyzing data to his everyday life. He is recording numerous variables, some that are driven and some that are drivers, and using regression to find non-obvious correlations.

What a great way to optimize your efforts for maximum positive effect in your life! Want to know if the latest fad diet works better than the previous fad diet? You can! Want to figure out whether video game abuse is ruining your life? No problem!

Of course there are also the added benefits of daily feedback. In organizational management there is a saying that 'you get what you measure'. Want to watch less TV each week? Keeping a daily record of your habits can raise your awareness, and help you form concrete mini-goals to achieve each day.

To me, though, the really interesting part is the possibility of discovering a combination of small tweaks to your daily routines that could have a large impact on your sense of well-being. Who knows how much happier you could be?