Inside My Nightmarish Quest For Screen Time Zero
Living a life free from screens. It’s something we all wish we could do, but, thanks to the now-ubiquitous nature of technology, can’t. I spent a week cutting my screen time in half each successive day: eight hours on Monday, four hours on Tuesday, and so on until I had less than 10 minutes on Sunday.
Kudos, Leaderboards, QOMs: How Fitness App Strava Became A Religion
Strava is a fitness and sports tracking platform that launched in 2009 and bills itself the “number one app for runners and cyclists”. The app offers community, training data and motivation to millions of athletes. Even runners who dislike tech can’t bear to be without it.
Alcohol vs Drugs: Which Is More Dangerous?
The social drug of choice in Western culture is alcohol. Yet drinking is estimated to kill 100,000 a year in the UK alone. Should we wean ourselves off alcohol or even ban it, and instead promote other less harmful but currently illegal alternatives?
The Metaphysics Of The Hangover
A hangover is about being poisoned, no doubt. The toxins linger in the body and must be expelled, or waited out. We’re sick with a mini-flu and need to get better. But isn’t a hangover about more than physical toxins, at least some of the time? I’ll wager that a hangover is frequently about shame as well.
How Silicon Valley Ruined Work Culture
More and more offices are adopting the work culture invented by the technology upstarts. These are not the offices where your grandparents worked, clocking out at 5 sharp, eyeballing the corner office. There is no corner office here—just “hot desks” and open floor plans, wide as the prairie.
Who To Sue When A Robot Loses Your Fortune
The first known case of humans going to court over investment losses triggered by autonomous machines will test the limits of liability. A Hong Kong tycoon is going after the salesman who persuaded him to entrust his fortune to the supercomputer whose trades cost him more than $20 million.
Hyperloop Explained
Billed as the fastest way to cross the surface of the earth, Hyperloop represents the greatest leap in transport infrastructure for generations. The concept promises to slash journey times between major cities from several hours to a matter of minutes.
This Is Catfishing On An Industrial Scale
Hired as customer service reps, these freelancers were instead tasked with luring in the lonely and lovestruck through a network of dating and hookup sites. The niche dating portals funnel users into the system and usually include lengthy terms and conditions.
Mister Rogers Had A Simple Set Of Rules For Talking To Children
The TV legend possessed an extraordinary understanding of how kids make sense of language. He insisted that every word be scrutinized closely, because he knew that children—the preschool-age boys and girls who made up the core of his audience—tend to hear things literally.
How Lego Became The Apple Of Toys
In the last 10 years, Lego has grown into nothing less than the Apple of toys: a profit-generating, design-driven miracle built around premium, intuitive, highly covetable hardware that fans can’t get enough of. An exclusive look inside the company’s top-secret Future Lab.
Modern Slavery Of Disabled People In South Korea
30 Years A Slave: A moving report from South Korea where the police have rescued hundreds of modern-day slaves tricked into working on salt and seaweed farms on a chain of remote islands. Shockingly, many of those rescued have learning disabilities.
How To Control Your Emotions In Tense Moments
The ability to recognize, own, and shape your own emotions is the master skill for deepening intimacy with loved ones, magnifying influence in the workplace, and amplifying our ability to turn ideas into results.
Need Help With Your Dating Profile? These ‘Doctors’ Are In
Meet the consultants who help clients find love online — and, sometimes, assume their identities to chat with potential matches. Through one-on-one sessions and monthly retainers, Steve Dean helps clients reach their romantic goals, dispensing what is often brutally honest advice.
The Big Business Of Loneliness
Capitalism abhors a vacuum, and into this collective social void has stepped a fleet of companies and entrepreneurs selling an end to social isolation. Over the past decade, on-demand connection has become both a big business and a powerful marketing opportunity.
Global 5G Deal Poses Significant Threat To Weather Forecast Accuracy
A long-awaited international deal governing how the world’s technology companies should roll out 5G technology poses serious risks to weather forecast accuracy, according to data from federal agencies and the World Meteorological Organization.
Americans Are Going Bankrupt From Getting Sick
Medical debt is a uniquely American phenomenon, a burden that would be unfathomable in many other developed countries. According to a survey in the American Journal of Public Health, nearly 60 percent of people who have filed for bankruptcy said a medical expense contributed to their bankruptcy.
When A Performance Expert Battles Mental Illness
Brad Stulberg literally wrote a book on peak performance, but he had to reconsider everything after an unexpected battle with mental illness: “I felt detached from my body, as if I was in a virtual-reality video game. Soon I was completely paralyzed by the sense that I was losing my mind.”
The Soul-Expanding Value Of Difficulty
You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any agitation, any pain, any melancholy, since you really do not know what these states are working upon you?
The Age Of Envy: How To Be Happy When Everyone Else’s Life Looks Perfect
We live in the age of envy. Career envy, kitchen envy, children envy, food envy, upper arm envy, holiday envy. You name it, there’s an envy for it. Social media has created a world in which everyone seems ecstatic – apart from us. Is there any way for people to curb their resentment?
The Cyber Gulag: How Russia Tracks, Censors And Controls Its Citizens
Russia’s efforts often draw comparisons with China, where authorities use digital surveillance on a vast scale. Sensitive individuals are routinely tracked, either by cameras or via their cellphones, email and social media accounts to stifle any dissent.
Heatworks’ Tetra, An Internet-Connected Compact Countertop Dishwasher
Tetra is an internet-connected compact countertop dishwasher invented by Heatworks. It requires no plumbing and can be placed and used anywhere with a standard electrical outlet. With a smaller capacity than the average dishwasher available on the market today, Tetra holds two full place settings or 10 plates or 12 pint glasses.