What To Say To Someone Who Lost A Parent Or Loved One
There are many potential answers but all are derivative of the same goal: communicating empathy and offering assistance, empathizing with what a person is going through, understanding what a person might need from you, and knowing how to phrase sentiments the right way.
Google Maps Is Different Depending On Your Location
If you go on Google Maps in Japan, the region between South Korea and Japan is shown as the “Sea of Japan”. However, if you’re using Google Maps inside South Korea, it will instead appear by the name “East Sea”. Two names for the same body of water on the same site.
The Homeownership Obsession
There are two different tales we tell ourselves about houses. The primary story is about bright futures, long lives, children, grandchildren, and hard-earned success. The second story, the darker story, is about the horror of being trapped.
The New Generation Of Self-Created Utopias
The United States has been a laboratory for experiments in alternative living since its founding. As so-called intentional communities proliferate across the country, a subset of Americans is discovering the value of opting out of contemporary society.
Your Colleagues Don’t Read Anything You Write. Here’s How to Change That.
Long emails and dense, difficult to decipher memos mean modern office communication goes ignored more often than it’s understood. Beneath these brutal realities, getting busy co-workers and bosses to take action means changing eight things about the way we communicate.
In The Land Of Hope And Grief
An art therapy project in an Alaska Native village helps teens talk about suicide in their community. By offering helping hands to their peers, these young people are learning to believe in themselves and preparing to guide their communities and cultures into a new era.
Blackfishing: ‘Black Is Cool, Unless You’re Actually Black’
From Kim Kardashian to Selena Gomez, the perceived trend for wanting to appear black shows no sign of slowing down. “It’s about picking and choosing common black traits and characteristics for one’s benefit, while we continue to face discrimination on a day to day basis.”
How Your Personality Changes As You Age
Our personalities were long thought to be fixed by the time we reach our 30s, but the latest research suggests they change throughout our lives – and bring some surprising benefits.
Is There An Upside To Having No Social Life?
For one month, Madeleine Dore declined all in-person activities with friends to see if it would make her more productive – with surprising results. The trick to being successful could, in fact, be simple.
The Hypersane Are Among Us, If Only We Are Prepared to Look
Hypersane people are calm, contained and constructive. It is not just that the ‘sane’ are irrational but that they lack scope and range, as though they’ve grown into the prisoners of their arbitrary lives, locked up in their own dark and narrow subjectivity.
When Her Best Friend Died, She Rebuilt Him Using Artificial Intelligence
It had been three months since Roman Mazurenko, Kuyda’s closest friend, had died. Kuyda had spent that time gathering up his old text messages, setting aside the ones that felt too personal, and feeding the rest into a neural network built by developers at her artificial intelligence startup.
How Not To Care When People Don’t Like You
When you’re not wasting energy molding your personality to someone else’s to be accepted, you’re more likely to find people who genuinely like you for you, and those relationships are far less exhausting to keep up. Still, it sucks to feel disliked. Here’s how to get through it without falling down a rabbit hole of sadness.
How To Get Up To Speed On Any Subject Quickly
When you’re in over your head, how do you quickly figure out what’s important? Is there a way to go from incompetent to in control—really, really fast? There is. Here’s how it works.
How Cities Became Childless
American cities are getting more expensive, and families are being pushed out. Welcome to the future of urban living, where young people have to make a choice: money or babies?
The Mystery Of Personal Identity: What Makes You And Your Childhood Self The Same Person Despite A Lifetime Of Change
What is it that makes a person the very person that she is, herself alone and not another, an integrity of identity that persists over time, undergoing changes and yet still continuing to be — until she does not continue any longer, at least not unproblematically?
How Exercise Shapes You, Far Beyond The Gym
Physical activity boosts short-term brain function and heightens awareness. And even on days they don’t train — which rules out fatigue as a factor — those who habitually push their bodies tend to confront daily stressors with a stoic demeanor.
The Lost Art Of Concentration: Being Distracted In A Digital World
We check our phones every 12 minutes, often just after waking up. Always-on behaviour is harmful to long-term mental health, and we need to learn to the hit the pause button. Experts are telling us that these interruptions and distractions have eroded our ability to concentrate.
Why Is There Still Poverty In America?
In America almost 40m people—one eighth of its population—live in poverty. Why does the richest big country in the world still have so many people living in profound need?
The 8-Hour Workday Is A Counterproductive Lie
The eight-hour workday started its life as a socialist dream. “Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, and eight hours rest”. There’s just one problem: It’s all but impossible to actually work for eight hours a day in the jobs so many of us now have.
How To Create A Playable City
Technology may be reshaping how we engage with urban spaces, but does it risk sucking the life out of them in the process? We explore some of the creative projects that are making our cities more playful.
How To Be A Better Web Searcher: Secrets From Google Scientists
Search engines are powerful tools that can be incredibly helpful, but they also require a bit of understanding to find the information you are actually seeking. Small changes in how you search can go a long way toward finding better answers.