What would you do with an extra 30 years? 🌱✨⏳
Plus . . . why you need a user manual at work.
1. WHY NOT? National service is a great idea. Is national service for people over 65 an even better idea? 🌍🎖️💪🏽
“Bad news that happens fast always grabs our attention – earthquakes, plane crashes, cyberattacks. But what shapes our lives more profoundly, yet often eludes our notice, is good news that happens slowly.”
That’s the opening paragraph of a new Washington Post column that describes the massive increase in lifespan over the last century — and our failure to adjust the structure of life to its new length.
You can read the column here (gift link) or by clicking the image below.
Discover more about the Washington Post Why Not? project:
Recent columns: Why not give instead of receive presents on your birthday, pay teachers six-figure salaries, and ban left turns on busy streets?
Contribute your own bold idea. Readers have already submitted thousands of them. Share yours by using this WaPo link or emailing me directly at whynot@danielpink.com.
2. PINK RECOMMENDS. The magic of charts, ambient sounds, and agricultural productivity. 🌟📊🎼🌾
COUNT: I love charts. So that I’m introducing them to Pink Recommends. Our first entry demonstrates why we should supplant our intuition with facts. YouGov asked two large samples of U.S. adults to estimate the size of various groups. As you can see below, their estimations were off. Way off. Lots of Americans apparently believe that their country is teeming with left-handed, bisexual, gun-owning vegetarians.
TRY: Charts aren’t my only love. I also adore earplugs, headphones, and ambient noise. I’ve got a 10-hour Spotify playlist of Pink Noise. And I recently discovered A Soft Murmur, a free app that lets you to mix and match all sorts of natural and human-made sounds to boost concentration.
READ: Contemplating your next act after decades of work? Check out the new book, Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, a smart and practical guide to the logistical and psychological challenges of a new stage of life. One of the co-authors is Harvard Business School’s Teresa Amabile, who’s quoted in the Post column. (Amazon, BN.com, Bookshop, Public library)
COUNT (AGAIN): On the theme of good news that happens slowly, this chart from Bruce Mehlman reveals how efficient America has become at feeding its people. We now spend less on food, as a share of wallet, than any country in the world.
3. FINAL THOUGHTS. This is how to stop your work colleagues from annoying you . . . and you from annoying them. 🎯🤬💻
Here’s one of my all-time favorite let’s-make-work-better techniques:
To get along more smoothly with your colleagues, try writing a user’s manual — for yourself.
It sounds nutty, but it works. Learn the basics in this short video, which you can watch by clicking the image below