Dilbert creator Scott Adams: Read this if you want to be happy in 2014

Read this if you want to be happy in 2014

By Scott Adams, Published: January 3 | Updated: Saturday, January 4, 2:39 AM

I have no expertise whatsoever on the topic of happiness. But I do have a knack for observation and simplification. That’s what I do for my day job as the creator of Dilbert. Today — as some of you are already backtracking on those New Year’s resolutions — I’m going to strip out all of the mumbo-jumbo around the topic of happiness and tell you the simplest way to get some. You’re reading this in the business section because every bit of what follows on the topic of happiness is relevant to your career, especially if you have entrepreneurial ambitions. You’ll need all the good health, good looks and mental energy you can muster to influence people and survive the long hours. As luck would have it, the good habits that make you healthy and energetic help to make you happy at the same time, so it’s a double win.

As far as I can tell, people usually experience the sensation of happiness whenever they have both health and freedom. It’s a simple formula:

Happiness = Health + Freedom Read more of this post

The Path to Altruism: The desire to help others without consideration for ourselves is not just a noble ideal. Selflessness raises the quality and elevates the meaning of our lives, and that of our descendants; in fact, our very survival may even d

MATTHIEU RICARD

Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen Monastery in Nepal, holds a doctorate in molecular genetics and runs 130 humanitarian projects through his organization Karuna-Shechen.

JAN 3, 2014

The Path to Altruism

SHECHEN, NEPAL – “Cooperation,” the Harvard University biologist Martin Nowak has written, is “the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities.” As mankind now tries to solve new, global challenges, we must also find new ways to cooperate. The basis for this cooperation must be altruism. Read more of this post

You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More: A new study illustrates humans’ deeply rooted desire to earn more than they possibly can consume

January 4, 2014

You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More

By MATT RICHTEL

All work and no play may just be a result of “mindless accumulation.”

So say scholars behind research, published in the journal Psychological Science in June, that shows a deeply rooted instinct to earn more than can possibly be consumed, even when this imbalance makes us unhappy. Read more of this post

Even as a child, Jeff Bezos was a data-obsessed, workaholic genius

Even as a child, Jeff Bezos was a data-obsessed, workaholic genius

By Jonathan Wai January 3, 2014

Jonathan Wai is a researcher at the Duke University Talent Identification Program and Case Western Reserve University and writes “Finding the Next Einstein: Why Smart is Relative” for Psychology Today. Read more of this post

How to give your kids everything but a sense of entitlement

How to give your kids everything but a sense of entitlement

By Jenn Choi 4 hours ago

Jenn Choi is the mother of two children. On her site Toys Are Tools, she attempts to decipher what is really beneficial about high-quality educational toys. Kids who understand gratitude have better grades and are less likely to get depressed. This was the conclusion of a recent story in the Wall Street Journal that struck a chord with both my husband and me. Read more of this post

Today one in four people can expect to be struck with debilitating anxiety—why are we so stressed out?

Book Review: ‘My Age of Anxiety’ by Scott Stossel

Today one in four people can expect to be struck with debilitating anxiety—why are we so stressed out?

DANIEL AKST

Jan. 3, 2014 4:52 p.m. ET

Confronted with the problem of spirituality, William James argued that we should study “the acute religion of the few”—mystics, ascetics, spiritual revolutionaries—in order to shed light on “the chronic religion of the many.” Read more of this post

In the era of Facebook and “the friend zone,” are we forgetting the value of a true boon companion?

Book Review: ‘Friendship’ by A.C. Grayling

In the era of Facebook and “the friend zone,” are we forgetting the value of a true boon companion?

MICAH MATTIX

Jan. 3, 2014 4:50 p.m. ET

‘Friend’ is a much devalued word today. President Barack Obama recently referred to his “friends on the right”—with little apparent friendliness. The rest of us, thanks to Facebook, are “friends” with people we have never met. We speak of “friends with benefits” when we mean casual lovers, and of living in the “friend zone” when we mean being romantically frustrated. We refer to things and events as being “eco-friendly,” “user-friendly” or “business-friendly.” Read more of this post

Back to School: Fama, French Discuss Their Work; The top proponents of the efficient-market theory on stocks, behavioralists, and bubbles

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2014

Back to School: Fama, French Discuss Their Work

By BEVERLY GOODMAN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

The top proponents of the efficient-market theory on stocks, behavioralists, and bubbles.

Eugene Fama and Kenneth French have the easy banter of two brilliant minds that have collaborated and challenged each other for three decades. Fama, 74, teaches at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He just won the Nobel Prize for his theory of market efficiency, which, in 1965, argued that all available information was immediately incorporated into stock prices. In 1985, he teamed up with Ken French, who at the time also taught at Chicago, but is now a professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. Since then, “Fama and French” has been a catchphrase, shorthand for efficient markets and the model for investing that grew out of that theory. Read more of this post

Paul Stoneham, boss of hair straightener manufacturer ghd, has improved his company’s supply chain and volumised sales and doubled profits over the past four years

How ghd is getting ahead

ghd boss Paul Stoneham has improved his company’s supply chain and volumised sales

Over the past four years Paul Stoneham has doubled profits at ghd Photo: Paul Grover

By Anna White

8:00PM GMT 04 Jan 2014

The hair straightener manufacturer ghd is barely recognisable after a makeover from its chief executive, Paul Stoneham, who will launch 20 new products over the next five years. Read more of this post

Up Close and Personal with Datuk Michael Tio, CEO of PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd

Updated: Saturday January 4, 2014 MYT 8:06:57 AM

Up Close and Personal with Datuk Michael Tio, CEO of PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM

IT’S Tuesday. Datuk Michael Tio is in his office hard at work, ensuring that operations at PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd, a total logistics service provider, is running smoothly. The irony is that it’s also his birthday, and birthday greetings are already pouring in – by the minute.

In Tio’s office to one corner of the room hangs a large screen high-definition TV that’s hooked up to the Internet. Tio, a big social media advocate, replies his thousands of “fans” periodically as the greetings come pouring in, all during the course of this interview. Yes, PKT Logistics has its own Facebook page, and to date, has over 20,000 unique fans and growing. Read more of this post

Encouraging entrepreneurs keeps companies forever young

January 2, 2014 4:02 pm

Encouraging entrepreneurs keeps companies forever young

By Kate Burgess

Encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit among staff is vital to keeping companies forever youthful, according to experts in business psychology. Contrary to common perception, entrepreneurs fit well in big corporate cultures, say the professors from University College London and Goldsmiths. Read more of this post

How the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Really Did It

How the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Really Did It

The stock scam wasn’t emblematic of greed in the Financial District. These guys were just shrewd crooks working out of Long Island.

RONALD L. RUBIN

Jan. 3, 2014 6:40 p.m. ET

The swindler known as the “Wolf of Wall Street” taught me how to pull off his boiler-room fraud, down to the smallest details. Movie director Martin Scorsese’s lurid version of the tale now showing in multiplexes doesn’t capture how the scams really worked. Read more of this post

Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off; For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn’t Worth It

Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off

For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn’t Worth It

GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS

Updated Jan. 3, 2014 8:40 p.m. ET

In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody. A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, “30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education.” Allowing for tuition, interest on student loans, and four years of foregone income while in school, the fictional student “Patrick Moorhouse” wasn’t much better off. His years of stress and study, the article japed, “have been more or less a financial wash.” Read more of this post