Articles

Originally posted in our October 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. To conclude this month’s Top of Mind newsletter, we visit an ecological experiment set in a desert called the biodome. In it are, seemingly, the perfect conditions for growing fruits, vegetables, and trees, and it was a place where humans could live happily for months at a time. “When the trees grew to a certain height, they would topple over. It baffled scientists until they realized…

Originally posted in our October 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. While few of us would wish for adversity, much can be learned from those who overcame it to achieve success. One study, referenced in this piece from the Wall Street Journal, sought to do just that. In the study turned book from 1962, Victor and Mildred Goertzel analyzed the lives of (at the time) 400 eminent figures around the world. What they found was that 75%,…

Originally posted in our October 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. If someone asked you if you feel anxious often, it’s a fair assumption that you would say, “yes, absolutely!” Anxiety, both the medical diagnosis and the general feeling, seems to have increased over the last two decades. In this piece from the BBC in October 2022, author Tracy Dennis-Tiwary discusses the role of strong emotions, namely anxiety, in how we interact with the world. “[E]motions are…

Originally posted in our September 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Thinking about the value of mind-wandering might lead you to reflect on times you’ve been guilty of procrastination. Everyone does it, but why? And perhaps more importantly, how can we combat it? In this Harvard Business Review article from 2016, we see a simple yet effective outline of how to get over procrastination. From simple tips like committing publicly to achieving a goal to visualizing how…

Originally posted in our September 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. What causes our minds to wander? Is it helping us or hurting us? Researchers have found that the answer is more complicated than you might think. But, as the fields of psychology develop and shift, so too does neuroscience. We can now better than ever understand what parts of the brain are doing while we perform tasks or when we are prompted to think about specific…