Reading

I just read What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. It was fast, glib, and disappointing, so I figure I can summarize the good/new bits quickly and save you the trouble of reading it.

1. Fast feedback is great for motivation. Even if you won't hear back about the result of a test, a bid for promotion, or whatever until later, try pretending you'll hear back instantly.
2. Weirdly, people are more likely to have success at a task when they first asked themselves if they would succeed than if they told themselves they would. I've been trying this one out, thinking "will I get that summary written in LJ today?" Maybe people talk or tease themselves into doing things.
3. Trusting people feels good, apparently. "Both earning another's trust and feeling at ease enough to extend our trust are rewards in the parlance of the happy brain." I think this is a lot of why acroyoga is so great.
4. The portfolio approach. When annoyance occurs, think how wins and losses both happen, but it's the overall portfolio of outcomes that matter. Obviously this is the old aphorism "you win some, you lose some", but "portfolio thinking" sounds better.

Also, this month's issue of The Atlantic is all about teaching me new phrases.

• nut graf -- short for "nutshell paragraph", the key point of an article or essay.
• lysergically -- in a way having to do with LSD (also known as D-lysergic acid diethylamide 25)
• cri de coeur -- An impassioned outcry, appeal, protest or entreaty.