The Paradox of Preferring Busyness Yet Needing Justification for It
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
1d ago
Having an abundance of free time sounds great, especially if you feel like you are constantly short on time. But it turns out that we dread idleness. Having too much discretionary time is associated with a lower sense of well-being. In fact, as I have previously written, many of us would choose to deliver ourselves electric shocks rather than being bored. Interestingly, even though we desire busyness, we want a justification for being busy. We tend not to choose busyness just for the sake of being busy. A fascinating study conducted on college students confirmed this conclusion. The Justifiabl ..read more
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The Cruel Curve of Forgetting: We Rapidly Lose Most Memories (But We Can Fight It)
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
1w ago
A friend recently recommended a book by an author whose previous book I had read. She asked me, “What was that (prior) book about?” My response: “Uh. . . umm . . . I can’t remember.” I had drawn a total blank — I couldn’t recall the main characters or even the plot. The only thing I could remember was a vague recollection that I had liked it. I bet this happens to you, too — you don’t remember the details of many of the books you read, movies you watch, or most other experiences. And then there are all the mundane things like your morning commute, what you had for lunch two weeks ago, and deta ..read more
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Leap Day Explained: 5 Fascinating Facts About February 29th
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
1M ago
Once (almost) every four years, February has a 29th day. Today’s IFOD is about why the calendar needs this extra day, as well as a few other little-known interesting facts about Leap Day. 1. Why Leap Days are Necessary To get the obvious fact out of the way, leap days are needed to keep the calendar and seasons aligned because it takes longer than 365 days for the Earth to orbit the Sun — 365.24219 days, to be precise, or a bit less than 365¼ days. (But see the end of this IFOD for a slight technical correction to the prior sentence.) That (almost) extra 1/4th of a day means that (almost) ever ..read more
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The Six-Word Mantra That Fights Uncertainty
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
1M ago
We move through life in a fog of uncertainty. Most uncertainty is no big deal. Not knowing exactly how the weather will turn out today, whether your morning commute will go smoothly, or what you’ll have for dinner are minor uncertainties that don’t cause much angst. But then there are bigger uncertainties like health issues, not knowing if your student visa will be issued in time to study abroad, and waiting for test results. These more considerable uncertainties cause stress, worry, and anxiety. What stinks is that these bigger, uncertain situations usually have no easy solution. You just hav ..read more
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Why I Prefer eBooks Over Print Books
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
1M ago
Amazon released its Kindle ebook reader in 2007. Back then, pundits predicted that eBooks would kill off printed books because of eBooks’ lower cost, greater portability, and instant delivery for ebooks. But that hasn’t happened. Ebooks have remained at 10%-15% of all book sales for the past 15 years if you include audiobooks in the mix. Source. Why eBooks are Great Personally, I only read on my Kindle (or Kindle app on my iPhone, iPad, or Macbook); if someone gives me a printed book, I usually buy it in digital format to read. Here’s why I only read eBooks: I always have my book with me. Whe ..read more
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Navigating Success: The Art of Wandering According to Jeff Bezos
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
1M ago
Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are considered “must-reads” by the business and investment community. And for good reason — they are chock full of wisdom and Buffett’s worldview. But there is another set of must-read letters: Jeff Bezos’s annual letters to Amazon shareholders, which he’s penned each year since Amazon went public in 1997. One of my favorites was the 2018 annual letter in which Bezos talks about the importance of “wandering” in business. Amazon has experienced amazing growth over the last 30 years. What started as a website that just sold books ..read more
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From Groundhog Day Merriment to Parenting Insights: Celebrating 7 Years of The IFOD Blog
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
2M ago
It’s The IFOD’s birthday and today’s IFOD is about why I started writing The IFOD. But first, Happy Groundhog Day! I love Groundhog’s Day. Not because I actually believe that Punxsutawney Phil can predict winter’s duration but because I receive merriment from the notion that a large rodent has weather predicting abilities. It is so ridiculous that I cherish Groundhog Day.  The IFOD Blog’s Seventh Birthday I launched this website/blog seven years ago today with a post about the Interesting Number Paradox. Researching and writing about the various topics in this blog scratche ..read more
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The 1984 Super Bowl Commercial That Changed Advertising
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
2M ago
Apple released the McIntosh computer 40 years ago this week. It cost $2,495 (about $7,500 in today’s dollars), had 128k of memory (or 0.000131 Gigabytes), and no hard drive (you stored files on a floppy drive). Yet, even with these modest specs, the computer and the ad that introduced it were revolutionary. Why the Macintosh Was Revolutionary The Macintosh was revolutionary because of its graphical user interface, which used a mouse and provided a totally different way of interacting with a computer than the type-in-command method of using computers running MS-DOS (the operating system that po ..read more
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Rolling the Dice on Reality: The Ludic Fallacy and Life’s Unpredictable Risks
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
2M ago
The book that probably has had the biggest impact on my thinking is The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb (I’ve read it 3x). The main theme of the book is that important events that have the biggest impact on our lives, so-called “black swans,” are unpredictable—things like 9/11, the financial crisis, COVID-19, having your plane lose an engine, etc. (Here are five other books that have had outsized impact on my worldview) In The Black Swan, Taleb cautions against relying on mathematics and statistics to predict unpredictable events because they cannot be mathematically modeled due to their inherent u ..read more
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Segal’s Law: How Multiple Sources Can Complicate Our Grasp on Truth
John Jennings
by John M. Jennings
2M ago
A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure. -Segal’s Law I think Segal’s Law is brilliant as it gets to the heart of the difficulty of having multiple sources of information. It’s easy to believe a thing if you have just one information source, but a second (or third or fourth) source adds complications because any discrepancy creates uncertainty. Segal’s Law isn’t strictly true, of course, as averaging the time of two watches is likely closer to the true time than one watch unless it’s perfectly synced to the true time. But the point of Segal’s Law is that ..read more
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