Amanda Mull's father was a smoker for 20 years. When he became convinced that cigarettes were harmful, he simply quit smoking them. Later, when he decided he should take up running, he got up at 4:30 AM to get in five miles before work. And has continued this practice every day for more than 30 years. Mull, writing in The Atlantic, says that her dad's ability to adopt life-changing habits (or quit bad ones) was seen by her as the norm. For years she struggled to exercise [...]

A long time ago, when Woody Allen was known for writing funny books, he described a character named Weinstein who lay in bed feeling depressed about his age. “Next year I will be fifty-one. Then fifty-two.” Allen adds, “Using this reasoning, he could figure out his age as much as five years in the future.” While some of us have the advanced math skills to figure out our age 10 or even 15 years into the future, it’s one of the few things we can predict [...]

You've just been seated at a restaurant and while you're waiting for your server, you see a little sticker on the tabletop that says, "Scan me for today's lunch specials." It would be great to save a few bucks. So you pull out your phone and point the camera at the little square. What could go wrong? According to mobile security experts, plenty.Even if you're not familiar with the term QR code, you've certainly seen lots of them. They're the square, maze-like graphic that businesses put [...]

“The sky has finally fallen,” said Eeyore. “Always knew it would.” While you might not want to adopt the pessimism of Winnie-the-Pooh’s gloomy friend in every aspect of your life, when it comes to picking stocks, having a glass-is-half-empty attitude can give you a statistical advantage. It’s not because the market as a whole has been contracting. In fact, quite the opposite has been true over the past several decades. It’s because, for any given timespan, the number of stocks that underperform the market will outnumber [...]

Chris Sperry, a consultant who works with young baseball prospects, tells about a lesson on discipline he’ll never forget. He was attending the American Baseball Coaches Association convention, where for two-and-a-half days more than 4,000 coaches (from Little League to Major League) attended seminars on every aspect of the game. After a day of learning about pitching mechanics, hitting philosophy, and team practice drills, Sperry felt it had been well worth his time to attend. But the session everyone had been buzzing about was an afternoon [...]

As the 2021 pro football season kicks off, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will start at quarterback a man who by all standard measures is middle-aged. But if 44-year-old Tom Brady plays like he did last season, his team should do very well.   Even if you don’t follow sports this is an extraordinary story. Brady’s win in last year’s NFL Championship Game came 19 years after his first Super Bowl win in 2002. The most amazing thing is how little he has seemed to have changed—especially [...]