We’d just begun a family vacation this summer, when my teenager woke up barely able to swallow, with a throat raw and sore. I took her to the nearest ER, where the wait was blessedly brief. A triage nurse whisked into the examining room with a laptop on wheels and began questioning my daughter. . . . read more
I was asked to write this CNN.com blog as part of their recent series on our mobile society:
Tonight, as my husband stands in our bedroom, fingers whirling across his smartphone and eyes glued to its tiny screen, I have no idea “where” he is. Is he checking the score of his beloved home . . . read more
We began by picturing a young Eleanor Roosevelt teaching immigrant children to dance in the very room where we were gathered. Long ago, a dashing young Franklin D. Roosevelt would come to escort her home. I could see in my mind’s eye his jaunty straw hat, the long twirling skirts, an awkward young woman brave . . . read more
My HuffPost blog from the weekend on the pros and cons of new apps that screen out digital distractions for us:
Last night, I got a PTA alert about a software application that allows users to block access to email and websites such as Facebook, while retaining use of the larger web for self-selected time . . . read more
First one, then another… at the showing of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy that I attended last weekend, numerous people walked out of the movie. By the third or fourth exodus, I noticed that viewers were exiting in the film’s most still moments: when the camera lingers on retired spy George Smiley, pensively sitting alone in . . . read more
Heading toward the often stressful, overly complicated, ironically fatiguing holiday season, I had a small epiphany. I’d been trying once again to figure out how to be zen about the big family get-togethers that can fray even the most solid nerves.
Dynamics are never easy in any household, much less a series of households brought . . . read more
For Aristotle, practical wisdom was a key to the good life. He believed in flexibility in thought and in learning from experience, not in cold calculations or in rigid rules. Someone who tries to live their life by applying unbending rules to situations of uncertainty or conflict is like an architect who tries to . . . read more
In our rising push for speedy and computational decision-making, we tend to worship “blink” – the power of “thinking without thinking,” as popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. We want the fast answer, the magic bullet. Push, click, fix.
Now, it’s great that intuition has been brought in from the dustbin of psychology. For so long, rational, . . . read more
The Supreme Court struck down a California law barring the sale or rental of violent video games to minors, citing freedom of speech. Depictions of violence, one justice noted, aren’t subject to government regulation. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed,” wrote Justice Scalia. The ruling, of course, has video game makers cheering.
Perhaps . . . read more
Just got back from the Business Marketing Association’s annual conference in Chicago, where I spoke on a general session panel entitled “The @Work State of Mind.” Rick Segal, president of the ad firm GyroHSR, moderated.
The boundaries between home and work are gone – that’s not news. But we’re still dealing with the fallout. At . . . read more
