Zoe Weiss

Whenever we reach for our phones when we're bored we want to relieve feelings of fatigue and boredom, but a study suggests that doing so only increases those feelings even more.

The study's results showed that even though we're on our phones a lot, we still take "phone breaks" every 20 minutes or so and spend about 90 seconds every time.

In the age of artificial intelligence, there is a growing number of devices that communicate with us. We give them names like "Siri" and "Alexa" and don't find them threatening - until they are given a face.

Evolving technology can create robots that look like people, but it is also at this point where people start to object. Once you can make eye contact with a machine, it starts to look like a horror movie.

There are two prevailing ideas about how success happens:

1. A challenge presents itself. You rise to the occasion, follow your inspiration that sparks a process and leads to victory.
2. You start a business, grow it steadily, and consistently reap the benefits.

The first story is exciting, while the second is just boring. Success in the second case is primarily invisible because it doesn't feel like anything. It is also the most common form of success.

Clear-cut, zero-tolerance decisions and self-commitments are better than having to decide every time, or committing conditionally.

A 100 percent decision is better than a conditional decision, which can lead to decision fatigue and waste your limited willpower.

Practical wisdom is the answer to the question: How best shall one live?

The Value Fulfillment Theory states that wisdom is the skill sets, dispositions, and policies that help us understand and make use of the means and ends to live. This includes the capacity to see and refine one’s values, along with the traits of self-awareness, open-mindedness, humility, and perspective.

The snowy hill represents the brain, the people sledding are like the memories, and the trails left behind are the synapses in the brain.

Think of the brain as a hill covered in snow, and thoughts as sleds gliding down that hill. As one sled after another goes down the hill a small number of main trails will appear in the snow. And every time a new sled goes down, it will be drawn into preexisting trails, almost like a magnet. In time it becomes more and more difficulty to glide down the hill on any other path or in a different direction.

There are many reasons why Thanksgiving itself can help maintain and improve our friendships, relationships, and good health.

Most people with a significant other give thanks for their partners at Thanksgiving. But we should really try to extend that gratitude throughout the rest of the year.

Not everyone knows how to be happy or how to deal with the bumps and annoyances of life. When people get stuck in temporary setbacks, they can easily forget that happiness is never out of reach.

There are some belittling habits to avoid to stay on the course of happiness.

As the world gets complicated and stressful, it is increasingly common to be annoyed at the little things, like a dog barking outside, or by someone making a comment.

It would be awesome if people and things around us would change according to how we wish them to be, but that is not how the world works.

.. is nature's circuit breaker. This common atmospheric phenomenon is a flip switch that restores the natural electrical charge.

At any given moment, a 100 bolts of lightning strike the ground, while cloud-to-cloud strikes happen 10 times more frequently.