From the monthly archives:

December 2011

Loose Screws

by Stephen Mills December 30, 2011

This article is just a random rant. It’s like a train wreck that you can’t look away from.  Usually I go to Google news to scan the science section for interesting tidbits.  I don’t read the other trash.  However, today as I was scrolling down I saw a headline that I just had to read, [...]

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What Can One Person Accomplish?

by Stephen Mills December 25, 2011

Even though the spirit of Christmas has turned into a consumer obsession, it is still a good time of the year to think about the spirit of giving a little something of yourself to make the world a better place. This article is about what you individually can do. It’s about accomplishing something worthwhile by yourself.

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Does Money Buy Happiness After All?

by Stephen Mills December 19, 2011

Interestingly income in the U.S. affects daily emotional well-being (enjoyment, happiness, sadness, anger, worry, stress) up to about $75,000 of household income. That’s not exactly a subsistence level of income and is significant in that 2/3 of U.S. households are below that level. This indicates an increase in stable income would positively impact 2/3 of U.S. households in their day-to-day happiness levels.

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Uncertainty, Luck, and Talent

by Stephen Mills December 11, 2011

I submit the following points:

Most of the particular details of your situation came about by chance.
Most of your belief about your control of outcomes is simply an illusion of control.
People have different kinds and different amounts of natural talent
Despite all of the above, success is not just “dumb luck”. There is a reason why some people are successful and it has nothing to do with dumb luc

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The Means are Destroying The Ends

by Stephen Mills December 4, 2011

So many of us in particular and our culture in general have lost sight of the ends to which we should be striving. Things like freedom, intellectual growth, happiness, social relationships, and general well-being. We have allowed the means to these values to become the ends towards which we endlessly strive. We constantly are piling up the means, but forgetting the ends to which those should lead.

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