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31 Dec 20, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Resolution science: if you want to make New Years resolutions that will actually make you happier (and that you can achieve), then 👀 this chart. The world’s top happiness researchers were polled on the most effective & feasible ways for people to make themselves happier.... 1/ Image
Super effective & achievable based on the research :
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Invest in family and friends
💃🏻Join a club
🤹‍♂️Be mentally & physically active
👩‍❤️‍👩Be nicer & kinder to others
🌲Experience nature
🛌Get more sleep
🙏🏻Practice your religion, if you have one
💰Enroll in automatic savings
2/
Lowest in effectiveness and feasibility for making you happy:
🧹Decluttering
🍃Becoming vegan
🖥 Eliminating screens
🏡Owning your own home
🤱Having kids
There’s more detail in the open access paper: /3 link.springer.com/article/10.100…
Of course, we don’t tend to keep standard resolutions built around changes in habits for long... 4/
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider major, irreversible changes to make you happier. This amazing experiment showed that we avoid major life decisions that we know can make us happy. Now is a good time to try, and Happy New Years! 5/

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More from @emollick

Ethan Mollick Profile picture
2 Jan
This is an example of an academic paper that is immediately useful to entrepreneurs. We know the easiest way to raise VC is to have done it before, but this paper used deep studies into startups to lay out an alternate path that works just as well, but is more complicated... 1/7 ImageImage
The first step is what they call "casual dating" - this involves having casual talks with VC BEFORE you need the money to build ties. In these talks, you want to discuss your business, but not ask for money. You can't wait until you need $, it takes ~83 days to close a deal! 2/ Image
While VCs are generally happy to have these conversations with startups that look promising (half or more of VC associate time is spent sourcing deals), you usually need a warm introduction to get an initial meeting. More on that 👇3/7
Read 7 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
1 Jan
A 2021 lesson: the story of the pyramids is a story of great things made through trial-and-error & learning from failure...

Start with the first pyramid: the not-very-pyramid-y Step Pyramid of Djoser, designed by Imhotep. It was the tallest building in the world for 40 years 1/7 Image
This inspired Sneferu, who wanted a pyramid of his own, a real pyramid: the Pyramid of Meidum!

Wait, you haven't heard of it? That is because it immediately collapsed as it was built using sand & had the wrong angle & was really unstable. It was the tallest thing for 5 years 2/7 Image
Snerferu tried again. This is the Bent Pyramid. Halfway through building the Bent Pyramid, the Meidum Pyramid collapsed.

Aha - the builders learned something! The 54° angle they were using was not going to work, so they changed it to 43°. It was the tallest thing for 5 years 3/ Image
Read 7 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
4 Dec 20
Avoid jerks; civility wins in organizations. If you're civil, your coworkers are 59% more likely to share info, employees work 71% harder, and health and well-being receive boosts, too! This study is a great summary of the research, with tips for leaders. assets.yukonarchives.ca/Porath_Does_Ci…
Plus, firing toxic workers helps more than hiring more superstars in a study of 58,000 service workers.
🌟A top 1% superstar increased performance by $5,300
💀A toxic worker costs $12,800 in extra turnover alone.
Three questions help screen for toxicity: insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/hire-a…
Of course, this screen doesn't work for innovators. But that doesn't tolerating jerks. Bad behavior spreads. Look at teammates of steroid user/star player Jose Conseco. After working with him they had "mysterious" performance boosts that vanished after drug testing was mandatory.
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
1 Dec 20
A thread of cool papers showing odd unintended consequences of generally good ideas, starting with the fact that car seats saved lives, but also discouraged families from having more than 2 children, since they couldn't fit more than 2 seats in a car! 1/n
When smoking bans are implemented in bars and restaurants, smokers drink more instead, leading to 4% more fatal drunk driving accidents in areas where there a lot of smokers. (Though benefits of smoking bans likely outweigh costs) 2/n
Pokemon Go led to far more deaths than Grand Theft Auto. In fact, violent video games (and movies) decrease crime because people stay in to play, rather than going out where there might be issues. 3/n
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
28 Nov 20
Researchers left 17,000 wallets on the streets of 355 cities, some empty, some with money. Contrary to the predictions of economists, people everywhere were more likely to return wallets with money in them. But rates did vary from country to country. science.sciencemag.org/content/365/64…
The researchers argue that people are more likely to return wallets with money because they don’t like to feel like thieves, something backed up by a second experiment where they added even more money (the “BigMoney” condition in the graph) to some of the wallets.
As for some of the differences between countries, the researchers explored it in an appendix. Though the analysis was weak (it was posthoc & based on correlations with lots of confounds), it suggested that universal education & democratic institutions are linked to civic honesty.
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
27 Nov 20
It is 2020, and it is time to talk about the thing on everyone's mind: destroying the moon.

There was actually a US plan to nuke the moon (Carl Sagan was involved) in the Cold War: Project A119. But the US decided to do the Apollo Program instead. 1/3 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A… Image
Sadly, actually blowing up the moon is outside of humanity's reach, it would require 600M of the biggest nuclear bombs ever built & Saturn Vs to launch them

So how about just writing on the moon. It is hard to do with nukes, requiring 1M warheads & 3,000 Saturn Vs per letter 2/3 Image
Better to launch asphalt and paint the moon- just 2,000 Saturn Vs per letter. To write "hello" you would need 10,000 rockets, (~$1B each in today's dollars). So, around $10 trillion, give or take, only 1/8 of the yearly gross world product. Good deal! 3/3 canmom.tumblr.com/post/863420496… Image
Read 4 tweets

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