“Our task at midlife is to be strong enough to let go of the ego-driven desires of the first half and open ourselves to a greater wonder.”

“At middle age, our job is to be strong enough to let go of the ego-driven concerns of the first half of life and be open to a greater sense of wonder.”

Sometimes it’s the simplest studies that reveal how deeply culture shapes our thinking. Take a 2009 experiment involving only a researcher, a child, and a two-word instruction.1 The researcher announces, “Let’s dance!” and demonstrates a series of movements: He holds his hands together at eye level and extends them—first to the left, then to the […]

From Yelping to dating, there’s a better way.

In 1898, American psychologist Edward Thorndike published a seminal dissertation on animal intelligence. Thorndike, then at Columbia University, had spent hours experimenting with cats and special contraptions of his own design: puzzle boxes, confined spaces the cats could only escape by, for example, pawing at levers in order to trigger a release mechanism. Once out, […]

Are we happier with few or many choices? One subject settles the debate—dating.