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Article from WSJ: Is the Secret to Happiness Having a Gratitude Practice?

Even spending just a few minutes a day practicing gratitude can facilitate better sleep and lower blood pressure, according to research. How to get in on the healthy, easy wellness routine.

LLUSTRATION: HOLLY STAPLETON FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE

By Lane Florsheim

A surprising unifier has emerged over the last year in WSJ.’s My Monday Morning column, which chronicles the routines and productivity secrets people use to start their weeks: gratitude.

Before author Stephen King gets out of bed in the morning, he runs through a mental inventory of the things he’s grateful for. So does actor Tracee Ellis Ross. Musician and director Questlove writes a 15-item gratitude list every Sunday. Nike CEO John Donahoe spends time meditating on questions like, “What am I grateful for in the broad sense of my life? What am I grateful for in the previous day?” Actor Kate Hudson re-started her gratitude journaling after a reflective Thanksgiving car ride. Model Bella Hadid likes listening to a daily gratitude meditation every morning.

Gratitude isn’t a new concept or a practice that’s exclusive to celebrities. For one, it’s a tenet of most major religions. In modern times, it was popularized in 1990s self-help books like Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life, a bestseller for which its author Sarah Ban Breathnach also created an accompanying The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude. Oprah Winfrey has extolled the virtues of gratitude journaling—writing down things she’s grateful for, which she’s been doing since 1996—numerous times over the years.

Dr. Robert A. Emmons, a psychologist and professor at University of California Davis who’s written several books on gratitude, says the pandemic is likely one of the reasons for the practice’s increased popularity right now. “In the face of crises and during troubling times, people rely on positive feelings to cope, and they seem to turn to gratitude more than any other positive emotion,” he says.

Alyssa Bonanno, 28, started her gratitude practice during a point in the pandemic when days started to feel as though they were blurring together. Bonanno, the co-owner of a creative agency in New York City, found that gratitude journaling in the evening was a nice signifier that work was done for the day. She uses a notebook in order to stay away from emails and says the exercise keeps her even-keeled the same way meditation or a workout does. “I also think it’s made me more gracious to the people who we work with,” she says.

“Don’t you feel like we’re all struggling a little mentally right now because of the surge?” says Amy Denet Deal, 57, the founder of Diné (Navajo) fashion and home brand 4Kinship. Every day, she wakes up at dawn, greets the sun and sets intentions for the day, as well as completing other practices that she doesn’t want to disclose publicly because of their sacredness. “Giving back is so helpful on all of these other emotions of fear, of depression, of all the things that have happened during Covid-19. It’s taking ownership of, How can I be grateful? How can I give back?”

Every day, Amy Denet Deal wakes up at dawn, greets the sun and sets intentions for the day.PHOTO: DILLON SACHS

The photographer, author and podcast host Amanda de Cadenet, 49, says focusing on what she’s grateful for tends to override any other negative emotions she might be feeling. Her gratitude practice incorporates social media prompts from the Hoffman Institute Foundation, which holds a week-long healing and development retreat called the Hoffman Process that she attended eight years ago; exercises from professor and author Kristin Neff, who focuses on self-compassion; and the tools she’s gained from her sobriety. “A big part of sobriety and recovery is based around acceptance of life on life’s terms,” she says. “I look for the small joys, like a neighbor of mine has the most beautiful-smelling roses.”

Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, says, “Humans are built to attend to the things that go badly in our lives. A lot of the exercises in positive psychology are ways of teaching people to savor and pay attention to what goes well.”

The psychologist Dr. Emmons says clinical trials indicate that gratitude practices can facilitate better sleep and lower blood pressure—and that people who keep gratitude journals are on average happier than those who don’t.

Benjamin Almeter, 28, the founder of public relations agency Dispatch, says his gratitude practice has allowed him to notice what’s made him happy—going on a long walk, taking 40 minutes to cook a meal instead of ordering takeout—and turning those things into patterns.

Some CEOs, founders and executives say their practices have strengthened their leadership at work. Stacey Boyd, 52, founder and CEO of philanthropic shopping site Olivela says she’s been practicing gratitude for 16 years and that it’s probably the most important thing she does every day. “It always forces me to reflect not only on how I’m powering through my day but as importantly, how I’m interacting with others, and as a manager and leader, how I can do better at inspiring more and better from them.” Others, like Susan Korn, 35, the founder of accessories brand Susan Alexandra, uses gratitude as a team-building exercise. “I think it makes people feel like they’re doing something special,” she says.

Susan Korn, the founder of accessories brand Susan Alexandra, uses gratitude as a team-building exercise.PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHNNY KOMPAR

A gratitude practice doesn’t have to be time-consuming. A few years ago, a friend gave Dianna Cohen, 30, the founder and CEO of hair-care brand Crown Affair, a book called the Five-Minute Journal. Now Cohen starts her mornings by filling out its prompts, which include writing three things she’s grateful for, as well as what she’s looking forward to that day. “It’s perfect if you’re going to the gym or have kids,” she says.

Writer Amanda Fortini, 45, describes her practice as an informal meditation that she does in bed as she’s going to sleep. Moving from small things (a meal she ate that day) to large (having shelter), she says she usually only gets to three of them before falling asleep.

Gratitude Adjustment

How different people think about and practice gratitude

Halah Flynn, 27, marketing professional, thinks through her gratitude list on runs to the Washington Monument.

On Tuesdays, Vera Papisova, 31, journalist, shares her “small wins” on her Instagram story, citing research that Tuesday is the hardest day of the week for most people; she posts her followers’ small wins, too.

Bonita Kye, 33, founder of Kye Intimates, practices gratitude on her daily walks to the beach.

Bonita Kye, founder of Kye Intimates, practices gratitude on her daily walks to the beach.PHOTO: TIANA MARIE COMBES

Amanda Baudier, 38, general manager of Melissa Wood Health, uses a monitor while she’s meditating that tracks her heart rate variability, which she says shows her whether she’s in an elevated space where she’s feeling emotions like gratitude and joy.

Poppy Jamie, 31, author and entrepreneur, shares three things she’s grateful for every day with her partner; he shares his, too.

Original article can be found here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-secret-to-happiness-having-a-gratitude-practice-11642691301

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Article from WSJ: Toxic Positivity Is Very Real, and Very Annoying

Forcing ourselves or others to always be positive can be harmful to our well-being and our relationships. There’s a better approach.

CAROLE HENAFF

By Elizabeth Bernstein

Sometimes the worst thing you can say to a person who’s feeling bad is: “Cheer up!”

Chip Hooley learned this the hard way. At the beginning of the pandemic, his daughter, Hilary, called him in a panic. She and her husband had recently purchased an apartment in Brooklyn. Now, she was worried that real-estate prices in New York were falling and her friends were leaving the city.

Mr. Hooley, 60, a financial-firm executive from Cazenovia, N.Y., interrupted her. “Don’t worry, this will all work out for the best,” he said, launching into a pep talk. “I gave her all these positive thoughts,” he said. “I felt like Batman saving the world.”

Then his wife, who was sitting next to him, piped up. “That was the most annoying conversation I’ve ever heard,” she said. “Your daughter wanted to talk to her dad, and you didn’t even listen.”

Always look on the bright side of life?

Heck, no.

Pushing away difficult emotions, such as sadness or fear, and forcing ourselves or others to be positive can be harmful to our mental well-being and our relationships, psychologists say. This is because practicing false cheerfulness—which they call “toxic positivity”—keeps us from addressing our feelings, and the feelings of others.

Chip Hooley and his daughter, Hilary, at her wedding at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., in 2018.PHOTO: KELSEY COMBE PHOTOGRAPHY

Why stifling difficult emotions doesn’t work

Yes, cultivating a positive mindset is a powerful coping mechanism, especially in tough times. But positivity needs to be rooted in reality for it to be healthy and helpful.

“Toxic positivity is positivity given in the wrong way, in the wrong dose, at the wrong time,” says David Kessler, a grief expert and the author of six books about grief, including his latest, “Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief.”

It sounds like this: “Cheer up!” “Don’t worry!” “Stop focusing on the negative!” “Try to have a better attitude!”

We’re all guilty of it. Many of us were taught as children to banish so-called bad feelings—to pick ourselves up when we fall, stop complaining and count our blessings. And our fix-it-fast culture reinforces the message that to be positive is to succeed. (Just consider the phrase “winning attitude.”)

Often, we go overboard on positivity because we just don’t want to feel bad. And we don’t want the people we care about to feel bad, either.

Yet, difficult emotions are a part of life. To suppress them is to deny reality. Research shows that trying to stifle those emotions makes you feel worse because you never coped with them—plus, they will pop back up eventually. The brainpower it takes to push the emotion away keeps you focused on it.

“Think of emotions as a closed circuit,” says Natalie Dattilo, a clinical psychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “They have to go somewhere, so they come back up, like Whac-A-Mole.”

‘It wasn’t a minor problem for me’

Telling someone who is in emotional pain to buck up is invalidating and dismissive. Not only are you diminishing their feelings, you’re telling them that these feelings are part of their problem.

“It’s a form of gaslighting,” says Susan David, a psychologist and consultant at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and the author of “Emotional Agility.” “You basically are saying to someone that my comfort in this situation is more important than your reality.”

In reporting this column I heard about people with cancer who were told to stay positive because that will help them beat their illness; someone who was laid off being told that it was all for the best because he’d hated his job; and grieving siblings who were told “at least your mom died in her sleep.”

A recently widowed woman in Philadelphia, whose refrigerator conked out the night before she was hosting family members for a holiday dinner, recalled how a neighbor told her: “In the scheme of things, this is a very minor problem.” (“It wasn’t a minor problem for me,” she said.)

A mother in New Jersey said her teenage daughter complained that her constant attempts to put a positive spin on the challenges of the pandemic only made her feel more stressed. A musician in Florida said a good friend who was feeling down cut her off after she tried too hard to get her to look on the bright side. “I’ll call you back when I snap out of it,” she’d said.

A better approach

How can we avoid forced positivity, to better help ourselves or someone else who is down?

Start by recognizing that it is different from hope or optimism. Those emotions are rooted in reality, Dr. David says, while toxic positivity is a denial of it.

Don’t judge yourself, or others, for feeling difficult emotions. Be compassionate. Tell yourself: “I am feeling sad or lonely in the pandemic and that is normal.”

Ask yourself what you can learn from your feelings. “Emotions are data,” says Dr. David. “They are not good or bad. They are signposts to things we care about.” (Loneliness, for example, might signal that you need more connection.) And take action. Do something to address what you decided is missing.

Remember it’s not your job to solve the other person’s problem, nor do they want you to. “You don’t want to listen to respond and give advice,’’ says Mr. Kessler. “You want to listen to understand.”

Dr. Dattilo suggests asking the other person what type of support he or she needs. And if you’re on the receiving end of someone else’s toxic positivity, explain that you don’t want advice. You just need an ear.

Mr. Hooley took his wife’s comment that his positivity was annoying to heart. “It was eye-opening to realize that it’s OK to be miserable once in awhile,” he says.

He called his daughter back that night and told her: “I just want to let you know that the situation does suck.” She was surprised. “It was nice to be validated,” says Ms. Hooley, 32, a senior merchandise planner for a retail company.

Now, Mr. Hooley tries to be a better listener. Last week, his daughter told him she was looking for a physical therapist because of back pain brought on by her pregnancy. At first, he launched into a positive spin. “At least your pain is because of a good reason!” he said. But then he caught himself and told her: “That’s no fun.” And he let her talk.

Being heard was nice, says Ms. Hooley. “You want to feel OK to not feel good in the moment.”

Original article found here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tired-of-being-told-cheer-up-the-problem-of-toxic-positivity-11635858001

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Article from NYT: Over 3 Million People Took This Course on Happiness. Here’s What Some Learned.

It may seem simple, but it bears repeating: sleep, gratitude and helping other people.

Andrea Chronopoulos

By Molly Oswaks

The Yale happiness class, formally known as Psyc 157: Psychology and the Good Life, is one of the most popular classes to be offered in the university’s 320-year history.

The class was only ever taught in-person once, during the spring 2018 semester, as a 1,200-person lecture course in the largest space on campus.

That March, a free 10-week version made available to the public via Coursera, titled “the Science of Well-Being,” also became instantly popular, attracting hundreds of thousands of online learners. But when lockdowns began last March, two full years later, the enrollment numbers skyrocketed. To date, over 3.3 million people have signed up, according to the website.

“We octupled the number of people taking the class,” said Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology at Yale and the head of the university’s Silliman College, of its pandemic-era popularity.

“Everyone knows what they need to do to protect their physical health: wash your hands, and social distance, and wear a mask,” she added. “People were struggling with what to do to protect their mental health.”

The Coursera curriculum, adapted from the one Dr. Santos taught at Yale, asks students to, among other things, track their sleep patterns, keep a gratitude journal, perform random acts of kindness, and take note of whether, over time, these behaviors correlate with a positive change in their general mood.

Gretchen McIntire, 34, a home health aide in Massachusetts, is studying for her bachelor’s degree in psychology through an online program from Southern New Hampshire University. In her free time during lockdown in August, Ms. McIntire took the class. She called it “life-changing.”

The practical aspect of the Coursera curriculum appealed to Ms. McIntire, who learned she had Asperger’s syndrome at 23. A night owl, she had struggled with sleep and enforcing her own time boundaries.

“It’s hard to set those boundaries with yourself sometimes and say, ‘I know this book is really exciting, but it can wait till tomorrow, sleep is more important,’” she said. “That’s discipline, right? But I had never done it in that way, where it’s like, ��It’s going to make you happier. It’s not just good for you; it’s going to actually legitimately make you happier.’”

She said she found having a daily meditation practice helpful, and has stuck with it even after finishing the class. Meditation also helped her to get off social media.

“I found myself looking inward. It helped me become more introspective,” she said. “Honestly, it was the best thing I ever did.” (She later re-downloaded her social apps, including Facebook Messenger, and felt instantly overwhelmed.)

Tracy Morgan, a programming supervisor at the Bob Snodgrass Recreation Complex in High River in Alberta, Canada, signed up for the class last June, as she was in lockdown with her children and husband.

“There’s no reason I shouldn’t be happy,” she said. “I have a wonderful marriage. I have two kids. I have a nice job and a nice house. And I just could never find happiness.”

Since taking the course, Ms. Morgan, 52, has made a commitment to do three things every day: practice yoga for one hour, take a walk outside in nature no matter how cold it may be in Alberta, and write three to five entries in her gratitude journal before bed.

“When you start writing down those things at the end of the day, you only think about it at the end of the day, but once you make it a routine, you start to think about it all throughout the day,” she said.

And some studies show that finding reasons to be grateful can increase your general sense of well-being.

Ewa Szypula, 37, a lecturer of French studies at the University of Nottingham in Britain, said she has been interested in self-improvement techniques since studying for her Ph.D. several years ago. “Somewhere along the second or third year, you do feel a bit burned out, and you need strategies for dealing with it,” she said.

One small study from Dr. Santos’s curriculum that stuck with her involved polling 632 Americans to predict how happy they would be if they were given $5 to spend on themselves versus getting $5 and being told they must spend it on someone else. In the study, people predicted that they would be happier if they were allowed to keep the money. But participants consistently reported afterward that they had in fact derived more satisfaction from spending money on someone.

Dr. Szypula had the opportunity to combine her newfound knowledge in a practical experiment on her sister’s birthday. Instead of keeping an expensive dress she had bought, she gave it to her sister.

“I’m still feeling that happiness months later,” she said.

Not every student of the class has felt transformed. Matt Nadel, 21, a Yale senior, was among the 1,200 students taking the class on campus in 2018. He said the rigors of Yale were a big adjustment when he started at the university in the fall of 2017.

“I was stressed, and I didn’t know exactly how to manage that,” he said.

Mr. Nadel said he was disappointed that the class was a sort of review of the kinds of obvious good advice you may get from a grandmother: Get enough sleep, drink enough water, just do your best.

“I knew that sleeping was good. I knew that my grades didn’t matter for long-term happiness, that I wasn’t going to be a happier, better person because of having good grades,” he said. “Did the class impact my life in a long term, tangible way? The answer is no.”

While the class wasn’t life-changing for him, Mr. Nadel said that he is more expressive now when he feels gratitude. “Which is great,” he said. “But that’s about all.”

Kezie Nwachukwu, 22, also took the class at Yale. He didn’t think it was revolutionary, either, he said, but has managed to find some lasting value in the curriculum.

Mr. Nwachukwu, who identifies as a Christian, said that the most important thing he learned is about the importance of faith and community in happiness.

“I think I was struggling to reconcile, and to intellectually interrogate, my religion,” he said. “Also acknowledging that I just really like to hang out with this kind of community that I think made me who I am.”

Life-changing? No. But certainly life-affirming, he said.

“The class helped make me more secure and comfortable in my pre-existing religious beliefs,” Mr. Nwachukwu said.

Another lesson that stuck with him was the value of negative visualization. This entails thinking of a good thing in your life (like your gorgeous, reasonably affordable apartment) and then imagining the worst-case scenario (suddenly finding yourself homeless and without a safety net). If gratitude is something that doesn’t come naturally, negative visualization can help you to get there.

“That’s something that I really keep in mind, especially when I feel like my mind is so trapped in thinking about future hurdles,” Mr. Nwachukwu said. “I should be so grateful for everything that I have. Because you’re not built to notice these things.”

Original Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/style/happiness-course.html

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WSJ Article: A Humble Mensch With Vanity Plates

Inspired by the SUV’s tags, I sought out the owner, John Mitchell.

By Allan Ripp

New York

The first time I noticed it, I thought: That’s cute, that’s clever. After encountering it over and over in my Manhattan neighborhood, I began to think of it as a personal call-out for me. Such was my relationship with the license plate “MENSCH1.”

John Mitchell with his car and license plate.

PHOTO: ALLAN RIPP

Mensch is a Jewish term of endearment for someone who is kind and considerate, who can be called on for help without expectation of payment in return. It derives from the German word for “person” or “human being,” mensch has come to mean the highest expression of humanity, with honor and integrity thrown in. It’s usually applied to men, but there’s no shortage of women who exhibit menschlichkeit.

A traditional mensch might be too modest to brand himself one, especially affixed to the front and back of a white Cadillac Esplanade. Seeing the car daily walking my dog along Central Park West, I imagined the owner as a garment mogul with gold chains or an orthodontist who frequents charity galas.

Although I attend synagogue and hope I have a moral compass, the plate challenged and inspired me as no sermon would. Scrolling my phone or waiting for my schnauzer to finish sniffing a garbage bag, I’d look up and see MENSCH1 beaming at me from the curb. It was a call to action: Will I be a human being today? How can I assist someone other than myself? It worked, even on a small level. Friends began texting me profuse thanks for supportive advice I was dispensing. Several sent bottles of wine. My wife noticed I’d stopped complaining about driving 55 miles to see her parents. Little did anyone know to credit an SUV vanity plate.

Determined to find out who was prompting me to be a better version of myself, I wrote a note with my phone number and set out in search of the Esplanade. I left my appeal on the windshield and was surprised to get a response within hours.

“Hi, it’s John Mitchell, your note brought a smile to my face,” he texted and agreed to speak. The John Mitchell I remembered from the Nixon administration wasn’t known as a mensch, but this one was different. Yes, he lives in a stony building—but on the ground floor, as resident manager, overseeing doormen, porters and service staff serving 52 apartments.

“We distribute the mail, collect the garbage, control leaks, and keep it clean,” he said, his voice rich with his old Bronx neighborhood. “I got rid of all the deadbeats.” He used his talent for plumbing, carpentry, plastering and electrical work to offer additional services, and what started as a side hustle became an insured enterprise.

“Now shareholders know they can call any time and me and my guys will do whatever is needed, whenever it’s needed,” he says. “The residents are the ones who suggested I use the name Mensch Reliable Contracting. I told them I’m not Jewish, and they said you don’t have to be Jewish to be a mensch.”

Five years ago he was renewing his car’s tags and applied for MENSCH. “It was taken, but MENSCH1 was available.” When his son Zachary returned from a stint in the Army recently, “I told him, always be a decent guy and do the right thing—be a mensch.”

Original Article: www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-humble-mensch-with-vanity-plates-11614727272

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With Chanukah having the focus of lehodos u’lhallel  - here is what happened to me yesterday that warrants a huge time hakaras hatov.

I was having lunch with Bobby Rahmanian in the office - sushi & shishito peppers. Took a bite into a shishito pepper & the spice hit the back of my throat, causing a block in my breathing. At first, I was having difficulty speaking and thought to drink water. It then very quickly became really bad where I could not swallow. Within three minutes, I was by the sink, trying to cough it up, to no avail. I then was beginning to have difficulty breathing  & said, “I can’t breathe.” Bobby came running over, opened the fridge & saw a yogurt & almond milk. He ripped open the yogurt and told me to try and eat the yogurt.  He kept saying milk was the move  - he sure knew what he was saying (see here).  I took three spoons of yogurt & BH within a couple of minutes, I was back to myself. אין אנו מספיקים להודות לך ה׳. No dramatization. Not looking for sympathy. Just poshut publicly thanking Hashem. ועל נסיך שבכל יום עמנו. על כל נשימה ונשימה תהלל קה.  When I asked Bobby how he knew this, he said that this had happened to his wife on their honeymoon during dinner one night. Hashem had that happen to Bobby’s wife 15 years ago; had Bobby join me for lunch today for the first time in months & also my first time in months ordering those shishito peppers. Hashem is the boss. Thank you, Hashem!

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Article from NYT: Your Brain Is Not for Thinking

In stressful times, this surprising lesson from neuroscience may help to lessen your anxieties.

Image: Claire Merchlinsky

By Lisa Feldman Barrett

Dr. Barrett is a psychologist and neuroscientist.

Nov. 23, 2020

Five hundred million years ago, a tiny sea creature changed the course of history: It became the first predator. It somehow sensed the presence of another creature nearby, propelled or wiggled its way over, and deliberately ate it.

This new activity of hunting started an evolutionary arms race. Over millions of years, both predators and prey evolved more complex bodies that could sense and move more effectively to catch or elude other creatures.

Eventually, some creatures evolved a command center to run those complex bodies. We call it a brain.

This story of how brains evolved, while admittedly just a sketch, draws attention to a key insight about human beings that is too often overlooked. Your brain’s most important job isn’t thinking; it’s running the systems of your body to keep you alive and well. According to recent findings in neuroscience, even when your brain does produce conscious thoughts and feelings, they are more in service to the needs of managing your body than you realize.

And in stressful times like right now, this curious perspective on your mental life may actually help to lessen your anxieties.

Much of your brain’s activity happens outside your awareness. In every moment, your brain must figure out your body’s needs for the next moment and execute a plan to fill those needs in advance. For example, each morning as you wake, your brain anticipates the energy you’ll need to drag your sorry body out of bed and start your day. It proactively floods your bloodstream with the hormone cortisol, which helps make glucose available for quick energy.

Your brain runs your body using something like a budget. A financial budget tracks money as it’s earned and spent. The budget for your body tracks resources like water, salt and glucose as you gain and lose them. Each action that spends resources, such as standing up, running, and learning, is like a withdrawal from your account. Actions that replenish your resources, such as eating and sleeping, are like deposits.

The scientific name for body budgeting is allostasis. It means automatically predicting and preparing to meet the body’s needs before they arise. Consider what happens when you’re thirsty and drink a glass of water. The water takes about 20 minutes to reach your bloodstream, but you feel less thirsty within mere seconds. What relieves your thirst so quickly? Your brain does. It has learned from past experience that water is a deposit to your body budget that will hydrate you, so your brain quenches your thirst long before the water has any direct effect on your blood.

This budgetary account of how the brain works may seem plausible when it comes to your bodily functions. It may seem less natural to view your mental life as a series of deposits and withdrawals. But your own experience is rarely a guide to your brain’s inner workings. Every thought you have, every feeling of happiness or anger or awe you experience, every kindness you extend and every insult you bear or sling is part of your brain’s calculations as it anticipates and budgets your metabolic needs.

This view of the brain has many implications for understanding human beings. So often, for example, we conceive of ourselves in mental terms, separate from the physical. A bad stomach ache that follows an indulgent meal may send us to the gastroenterologist, but if we experience that same ache during a messy divorce, we may head to a psychotherapist instead. At the gastroenterologist’s office, we experience our discomfort as an underlying physical problem; at the therapist’s office, we experience the same discomfort as anxiety — a psychological disturbance, physically manifested.

In body-budgeting terms, however, this distinction between mental and physical is not meaningful. Anxiety does not cause stomach aches; rather, feelings of anxiety and stomach aches are both ways that human brains make sense of physical discomfort. There is no such thing as a purely mental cause, because every mental experience has roots in the physical budgeting of your body. This is one reason physical actions like taking a deep breath, or getting more sleep, can be surprisingly helpful in addressing problems we traditionally view as psychological.

We’re all living in challenging times, and we’re all at high risk for disrupted body budgets. If you feel weary from the pandemic and you’re battling a lack of motivation, consider your situation from a body-budgeting perspective. Your burden may feel lighter if you understand your discomfort as something physical. When an unpleasant thought pops into your head, like “I can’t take this craziness anymore,” ask yourself body-budgeting questions. “Did I get enough sleep last night? Am I dehydrated? Should I take a walk? Call a friend? Because I could use a deposit or two in my body budget.”

This is not a semantic game. It’s about making new meaning from your physical sensations to guide your actions.

I’m not saying you can snap your fingers and dissolve deep misery, or sweep away depression with a change of perspective. I’m suggesting that it’s possible to acknowledge what your brain is actually doing and take some comfort from it. Your brain is not for thinking. Everything that it conjures, from thoughts to emotions to dreams, is in the service of body budgeting. This perspective, adopted judiciously, can be a source of resilience in challenging times.

Original Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/opinion/brain-neuroscience-stress.html

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Article from WSJ: Companies Offer Creative Solutions to Worker Burnout During the Pandemic

From surprise days off to 30-hour workweeks, managers are devising ways to help employees; ‘How are you really, really doing?’

PHOTO: MARK MATCHO

By Chip Cutter

A few months into the pandemic, Nick Popoff let his guard down in an all-hands video call and said aloud what many had been experiencing: He felt burned out.

Some weeks, the engineering director at ticketing company Eventbrite Inc. didn’t leave his house for days, he said. Slack notifications buzzed constantly. He missed seeing friends and colleagues in person. Even a hike with his wife through northern California’s redwoods, didn’t leave him sufficiently recharged.

“Work burnout is insidious. It’s not just like a red light that comes on,” Mr. Popoff says. “It’s something that very slowly starts to happen, and that’s how it can catch people by surprise.”

After Mr. Popoff shared his experience in the meeting, colleagues came forward, saying that they, too, felt exhausted by work, and life, in a pandemic. Mr. Popoff began leading “recognizing burnout” sessions for other employees, giving staffers a forum to voice their feelings, and to hear advice from mental health professionals about how to cope.

The effort is one of many experiments afoot in corporate America as bosses stare at a sea of faces on Zoom and worry. With no end to the pandemic in sight, managers say many remote employees report feeling depressed, fed up and wary of what’s next. Companies are adapting policies and rushing to roll out benefits to head off a surge of employee distress.

“There’s this second wave upon us, where people are feeling super-anxious that this is the new normal, and how much longer can we sustain this?” says Matthew Schuyler, chief administrative officer at Hilton hotels. “I don’t think we’ve yet come to grips with the mental impact this is having on all of us.”

In addition to expanding access to counseling and mental health services, many employers are trying other approaches, such as insisting employees disconnect or offering more training for managers. In recent months, Antonio Neri, chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., has been encouraging bosses at the technology company to call employees to check in on their well-being. “You’ve got to make the effort,” he says. “Don’t assume email is enough, because email is not personable.”

Jimmy Etheredge, CEO of North America for Accenture PLC, said employees email him about their pandemic-related challenges. PHOTO: ACCENTURE

Jimmy Etheredge, CEO of North America at consulting firm Accenture PLC, recently asked his 27 direct reports to attend 2½ hours of virtual training on how to better support colleagues facing mental-health issues. All participated. Mr. Etheredge says he regularly receives emails from employees, explaining their pandemic-related challenges. But consultants have a tendency to jump into a situation and become problem-solvers, an “occupational hazard,” Mr. Etheredge says. The training stressed that, in conversations with employees, sometimes attentive listening without judgment can be most helpful.

“Just validate that the person is being heard,” Mr. Etheredge says, while directing them to additional resources, if needed.

Solutions needn’t be complicated or costly, executives say. Eventbrite recently changed leadership training during the pandemic to focus on how supervisors can manage with empathy while people are working remotely. Now, bosses are taught to begin one-on-one sessions with employees with a simple phrase meant to elicit genuine emotions, says David Hanrahan, the company’s chief human resources officer. Instead of a stock “How are you?” before quickly moving on to business, managers might ask, “How are you really, really doing?” After Mr. Hanrahan poses the question, he is silent, even if the pause feels uncomfortable. With some prodding, employees may then open up about their true feelings regarding work or personal challenges. “It’s a simple tactic any manager can employ,” he says. “But it’s about true empathy and true care.”

Other companies have taken steps to bolster morale in the Covid era. Seattle construction and engineering company McKinstry Co. LLC began issuing companywide “good news Friday” memos, pointing out, “Hey, here’s eight things that happened this week that are pretty good,” says Dean Allen, the company’s CEO. That could be feedback from a happy customer or details about new business the company landed. Hilton’s Mr. Schuyler encourages managers and teams to allow Zoom calls from parks or other outdoor venues.

Fidelity Investments recently began a pilot program for a small portion of its workforce in which employees can opt to work 30 hours a week, with a small pay cut, while retaining their full benefits. Fidelity plans to hire more staff to pick up the work so that other colleagues aren’t overwhelmed, says Bill Ackerman, head of human resources at the financial-services firm.

As the pandemic drags, employers need to adjust their approach, Mr. Ackerman says. Benefits that may have been appreciated early on—such as matching gifts to charities and stipends for home offices—have shifted this fall to include access to child-care coordinators and subsidies, as parents grapple with schooling issues.

Many bosses say even finding ways to get employees to step away from their laptops takes more thought now. Geben Communication, a public relations firm in Columbus, Ohio, began offering employees bonus “self-care days” off in recent months, to encourage them to disconnect, says Heather Whaling, the company’s president. In Austin, Texas, Ryan Wuerch, chief executive of Dosh, an app that gives consumers cash back when they shop, takes another approach: impromptu three-day weekends. On some Thursdays, during all-staff meetings, Mr. Wuerch now surprises the company with the news that the following day is a “Dosh Day,” when no work is allowed.

Extra vigilance is key, managers say. To head off burnout, Eventbrite’s Mr. Popoff watches for employees who seem to be plugging away after hours and follows up with them the next day, saying that such work is unnecessary.

Jennifer 'JJ' Davis, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Dell Technologies, said she helps colleagues cope during the pandemic by being honest about her own challenges. PHOTO: JEROD HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES

Some workers have adopted cues to signal they need help. At Dell Technologies Inc., Jennifer “JJ” Davis, senior vice president of corporate affairs at the technology company, says during the pandemic her team has developed a way to alert colleagues when they are “above the line”—feeling OK, and able to lend a hand—or “below the line” and needing assistance. The phrases allow people to convey their state of mind without necessarily divulging personal details. “Nobody asks questions. They just say: ‘OK, what can I do?’ ” Ms. Davis says.

Pandemic-specific peer groups also are effective. More than 1,500 Dell employees joined colleagues in virtual support groups focused on child care or pandemic isolation, for staffers living alone. “It gives you a safe place to let your guard down,” Ms. Davis says.

Ms. Davis says she helps her colleagues cope by being honest about her own challenges, such as deciding whether her three teenage sons should attend classes in-person or virtually. Sometimes, when meetings run long, Ms. Davis begins preparing dinner—and tells her team she’s multitasking. “I’m like, ‘Hey guys, great meeting, I just finished a batch of brownies,’ ” Ms. Davis says. “If I don’t tell my staff and lead by example that I’m cooking brownies while doing a meeting at the same time, then they don’t know that they have permission to do the same thing.”

Taking Action

What companies can do to curb staff burnout:

Encourage employees to take time off. Some companies offer bonus “self care” days or end work a few hours early.

Expand access to counseling and mental-health services. Employers have rolled out digital counseling apps or brought on coordinators to help employees access care.

Ask managers to check in on individuals’ well-being. Even simple gestures, like a phone call instead of an email, can go a long way.

Offer training for managers on supervising with empathy. Overseeing employees in a pandemic is a new skill, so guidance on supporting colleagues’ mental well-being can help.

Foster dialogues where workers share genuine emotions. Asking “How are you?” isn’t enough; probe to get a sense for people’s real situation.

Original Article found here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-offer-creative-solutions-to-worker-burnout-during-the-pandemic-11604836834

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Article from WSJ: The Work Problems I Wish AI Could Solve

What about a system that automatically rewrites incoming emails to eliminate your co-workers’ unhelpful quirks?

Imagine an artificial-intelligence tool that could rescue you when you zone out on a call and lose track of the conversation. PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

By Alexandra Samuel

Whether you’re sitting in an office or toiling from home, often the hardest part of work is having to deal with colleagues. Sometimes it’s collaborating with them, sometimes it’s avoiding them.

If only AI could help.

I believe that it can, if we put our minds to it. Or somebody’s mind to it. What if the technology that’s so good at guessing our next Amazon purchase or even figuring out what we’re going to type next in our emails could help do the same thing in our communications with our colleagues? It could anticipate what we need and instantly find ways to fine-tune our interactions to make collaboration easier.

Here are my nominees and my wild imaginings about what AI could do for us.

The problem: It takes multiple meetings or dozens of emails for you and your colleagues to reach an understanding on a key issue.

The solution: the colleague translator. This AI tool will learn the communication styles of your various colleagues by studying their emails and text messages, and adjust their online communication so that you’re actually able to understand one another.

The colleague who always sounds angry because she writes in all caps, with no greetings or friendly asides? The colleague translator warms her up by converting her messages to sentence case and adding in a few words like “Hope you’re having a great day.” Got a junior assistant who floods you with so much background information and flattery that you can’t figure out what he’s trying to say? The colleague translator parses his emails and gives you the bullet-point, actionable version.

Need a little more TLC from an insufficiently appreciative boss? The colleague translator reads the nice comments he makes about your work to other people, then inserts them into the emails he sends you, so you actually know when he feels like “you really went above and beyond in your presentation to the board last week.”

Or maybe there’s a totally lovely lawyer on your team who always communicates in a friendly tone, but leaves you struggling with her legalese: The colleague translator uses its technical dictionary to replace her reference to stare decisis with “letting the decision stand.”

Premium upsell: a user control that lets you adjust the translator to your mood and needs. In a rush? Set it to candid, so your colleagues’ emails are pared down to the fewest possible words, without any of the embellishments that they added to avoid bruising your ego. Feeling blue? Set it to warm and fuzzy, so that incoming email arrives without any harsh language.

The problem: You’re trying to conduct a client call, but the person at the adjacent desk—this might be your office-mate, your spouse or your roommate—is on a call at the same time, and it’s so distracting.

The solution: the call director.

You give it a list of nearby colleagues (or it uses its omniscient location tracking to figure that out), and it manages your respective calendars and scheduling requests to minimize the occasions when you’re on the phone at the same time. If your office-mate has an 11 a.m. call booked next Tuesday, it will suggest 10 or noon as the best times for your own group meeting.

Premium upsell: auctions. You get to bid against your office-mate for speaking time, and the winning bidder gets the slot. So, if you outbid your roommate, you get to take your call at 4 p.m. and then knock off work, while he will have to wait until 5 p.m. to get the joy of a silent apartment for his call. (You might put all the money you’ve bid into a pool until the end of the month, then find an equitable way to distribute it—or maybe leave that to the AI.)

The problem: the dreaded “Zoom meeting fatigue.” You have so many video calls on your calendar that your brain (and legs) are going numb.

The solution: the meeting evader. This tool helps you see when you can avoid yet another video call by drawing on pre-existing information in your company communications.

Let’s say you’re about to set up a video call to discuss the plan for your quarterly sales report. Meeting evader prompts you for a meeting agenda, so you note that you need the latest sales figures, highest-value leads and sales, and current concerns and sales drivers.

Meeting evader then scans through the sales team’s shared drive and Slack/Teams channels, as well as your own email history, and compiles the information you thought required a meeting. Now you have your full report, plus an extra hour back in your day!

Premium upsell: the meeting blocker. It does the exact same thing as the meeting evader, but in the other direction: When someone requests your presence at a meeting, it refuses to book you without an agenda—nd then it uses the draft agenda to generate a reply by scouring your drives and communication for all the relevant information you could contribute, so you don’t actually have to take the meeting.

The problem: It’s hard to come up with great ideas when you’re working solo, but your colleagues are too busy to help you brainstorm.

The solution: the colleague simulator. You identify the colleagues you’d like to include in your online brainstorming session, and the colleague simulator constructs a simulated version based on their messages, emails and social-media presences.

Need the insight of the brainy co-worker who’s always up-to-date on the latest industry research? Colleague simulator scans everything she’s read or linked to, and echoes her point of view based on the kind of posts she usually writes or emails she usually sends or even (once we go full Big Brother) based on things she has said in the vicinity of a phone or digital home assistant. You have all the benefits of a sounding board, but unlike your real colleagues, your simulated colleagues aren’t insulted if you ignore their suggestions.

Premium upsell: celebrity colleagues. Once you’re simulating colleagues, why limit yourself to the people who happen to work in the same company? Your meeting can include extra-special virtual guests (Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein) on a pay-per-colleague basis. You can even license yourself for use in other people’s simulations.

The problem: Your boss or colleagues feel annoyed when you zone out on a call and don’t know what they’re talking about when they ask you a question.

The solution: the job saver. Whenever you’re on a call, this app is running in the background, transcribing the conversation and using pattern recognition to predict when the conversation is coming around to a topic that directly concerns you.

Thirty seconds before your boss calls your name, the job saver delivers a small electric shock through your keyboard to get your attention, followed by a 20-second briefing that tells you what you missed while you were playing “Words With Friends.”

Premium upsell: video foregrounds. Yes, lots of videoconferencing apps let you disguise your background, but the job saver will also replace you in the foreground so that your colleagues can’t watch you doing the dishes, refinishing your floors or doing whatever it is you’re doing. When the job saver alerts you to pay attention, just return to your chair and the video foreground will return to live video mode.

The problem: Your colleagues interrupt you via email, messaging or phone just when you’ve finally gotten into a good flow on your own work.

The solution: inspiration protector. This app keeps a record of your work habits, so it knows the difference between a day when you’re just knocking out emails and an afternoon where you’re really feeling the spark of inspiration.

When your choice of applications or typing speed suggests that you have entered a flow state, the inspiration protector turns off your incoming-message notifications, closes the background window that might produce audible Facebook message pings and maybe even flips your phone into airplane mode. Anyone who tries to contact you gets an auto-reply telling them that you’re currently unavailable.

Premium upsell: the break taker. The same AI can observe when your focus or productivity tends to peter out. Instead of waiting until you’ve wasted an hour, the break taker anticipates the downturn and tells you it’s time to get up and go out for that walk.

Buy the full suite as a single package, and the break taker could also confer with the call director to schedule your sweetie’s lunch break at the same time, so you can take that refreshing walk together.

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Article from NYT: Rest Better With Light Exercises

Stretching and meditative movement like yoga before bed can improve the quality of your sleep and the amount you sleep. Here is a short and calming routine of 11 stretches and exercises.

By Kelly DiNardo

Sleep should be a welcome respite, but with our regular routines upended and an almost daily onslaught of anxiety-inducing news, many people are tossing and turning. A study published in June by the journal Sleep Medicine found a 37 percent increase in the rates of clinical insomnia among adults in China from before the peak of the pandemic.

Exercise can reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and the amount of time spent awake at night, numerous studies have shown. It also increases sleep time and quality. While experts suggest avoiding vigorous exercise within an hour of bedtime (it raises heart rate, body temperature and adrenaline), stretching and meditative movement like yoga has been found to improve sleep quality. These types of exercises elicit the relaxation response, in which the body experiences a flood of calming hormones and physiological reactions that quiets the nervous system.

Here is a short routine that can be a calming transition right before bedtime. Grab a thick book or yoga block, two tennis or massage balls, and socks. For each exercise, take slow, deep abdominal breaths that emphasize and elongate the exhale. Breathing this way strengthens the relaxation response.

Cat/Cow

Moving between cat and cow yoga poses releases upper-back and neck tension and synchronizes breath and movement, which starts to calm the body and mind. Come into a tabletop position on the floor, with hands under shoulders and knees under hips. As you inhale, drop the belly, press the chest forward and look up. Exhale, tuck the chin toward the chest and round the spine. Move fluidly between the two poses so that with each inhale you come into cow and with each exhale you come into cat. Take three to five breaths.

Child’s Pose

The child’s pose releases tension in the back and shoulders, gently stretches the hips and has an overall soothing effect.  Starting in tabletop, sink your hips back to your heels and settle your chest between your thighs. Your big toes are touching one another and your knees are as far apart as they need to be to let you breathe deeply. Walk your hands out in front of you, stretching through the arms. Your forehead can rest on the ground, or, for a mini massage, place a tennis ball or massage ball under your forehead and gently roll from side to side. (This step stimulates an acupressure point believed to eliminate nervous tension.)

Thread the Needle

This gentle twist releases shoulder tension, and starts to stretch and loosen the lower back. Start in tabletop position, wrists under shoulders and knees under hips. As you inhale, take the right arm to the sky, palm facing away from the body. Exhale and sweep the right arm under the chest, resting the shoulder on the ground. Turn the right palm up toward the sky and rest the right cheek on the ground. Keep the left palm pressing into the earth or deepen the twist by taking the left hand to the small of your back. Hold for five breaths. Then, on an inhale sweep the right hand toward the sky for a gentle counter-twist. Exhale, return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.

Low Lunge

This exercise begins to open up the psoas muscle, the deepest muscle in the core that connects the spine to the legs. The psoas help move us forward when we walk or run, support internal organs and connect to the diaphragm, directly impacting our breath. Relaxing the psoas allows us to take deeper, diaphragmatic breaths.

Come back to tabletop. Step your right foot forward between your hands and slide your left knee farther behind you. Keep your hands on the floor, framing the front foot, or place them on your front knee. Take five to 10 breaths here and switch legs.

Neck Massage With Balls

This technique helps release neck tension and stimulates the vagus nerve, the driving force behind the parasympathetic nervous system, which impacts sleep and mood. Come down onto your back with a yoga block or thick book under your head. Turn your head to the right and place the ball on your upper neck behind your ear. Take five deep breaths here. Then gently nod “yes” three or four times, nod “no” three or four times. And, switch sides.

Bear Hugs and Snow Angels

These two exercises open the chest, release tension in the back and shoulders and counteract posture problems — poor posture has been shown to affect stress, mood, breathing and circulation.

Come down on your back and place two tennis or massage balls in between your shoulder blades at the top of your spine. (Tip: Using two massage balls in a carrier sack or two tennis balls inside a sock will keep them from rolling away.) Keep your knees bent and feet on the floor. Rest your head on the floor and take your arms out to your sides like cactus arms. Take three to five breaths here. Then, give yourself a hug crossing right arm over left and switch, crossing left arm over right. Repeat these bear hugs a few times. Then, take your arms back out into the cactus shape. Inhale and slowly extend your arms overhead. Exhale and bring the elbows into your waist. Repeat three to five times, trying to keep the arms on the floor throughout the movement. Lift your hips and roll the balls down your spine a few inches and repeat. Keep rolling the balls down your back and repeating the bear hugs and snow angels until you get to the mid-back (where a bra strap or heart rate monitor would be).

Figure-Four Stretch

This stretch, also known as “supine pigeon” in yoga, opens up the hips, relieves pressure in the lower back and counteracts too much sitting and poor posture. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Cross your right foot over your left thigh, just above your knee. Stay here, or hold onto the back of your left thigh and gently pull both legs toward you. Flex both feet, and keep your left foot at knee height or higher. Hold for five to 10 breaths and switch sides.

Knee to Chest to Spinal Twist

This combination move stretches the hips and lower back. Stretch out your legs and slide them together. Pull your right knee into your chest clasping your fingers around your right shin and gently hug your knee in to stretch your low back and hips. Hold for three breaths. Release your knee and send it across the left leg for a gentle spinal twist. Turn your gaze to the right. Hold for five to 10 breaths and switch sides.

Legs Up the Wall

This yoga posture stretches the hamstrings, relieves lower back tension and can help reduce any swelling or cramps that may have built up from sitting or standing for extended periods. Sit with one hip next to a wall. Swing your legs up parallel to the wall as you lean back and rest your upper body on the ground, forming an L shape. If your hamstrings are tight, scoot your hips back a few inches from the wall or put a slight bend in your knees. For added support, you can also place a folded blanket or bolster beneath your low back. This will lift your butt off the ground slightly. Take your right index finger to your nose and gently close the right nostril. Take five to 10 slow breaths in and out through just the left nostril, which lowers blood pressure, body temperature and anxiety. Release the hand and breathe slowly and deeply through both nostrils. Then, press the feet into the wall, lift the hips slightly, and roll to one side. Stay on your side for a few breaths, taking your time to come out of the pose.

Box Breath

This powerful relaxation technique can help clear the mind and unwind the body — Navy SEALs have reportedly been known to use it when their bodies are in fight-or-flight mode. Climb into bed, lie on your back and rest your hands on your belly. Close your eyes and inhale through your nose for a count of four. Hold the inhale for four. Exhale fully to the count of four, making sure all of the air is out of your lungs. Stay empty of breath for a count of four. Repeat the process for three to five minutes. It can be helpful to visualize drawing the perimeter of a square; imagine traveling up one side of the box on the inhale, across one side as you hold the inhale, down the other side of the box on the exhale and across the other side as you hold the exhale.

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Article from BusinessInsider: Top VCs reveal what they want to hear in a pitch that will convince them to fund your startup — and what you should avoid saying

The secrets are out. Hiraman/Getty Images

By Shana Lebowitz, Jennifer Ortakales, Emily Canal, and Mark Stenberg 

Successful entrepreneurship often starts with a compelling investor pitch.

We compiled insights from venture capitalists on what they're hoping to hear from you.

For example: Hold your ground on important issues and demonstrate your path to execution.

Venture capitalists want to be convinced.

Ask David Rose, and he'll tell you VCs wouldn't be hearing your pitch in the first place if they weren't interested in investing. Rose runs Gust, a digital platform for early-stage entrepreneurs and investors, and Rose Tech Ventures, an angel investment fund and incubator.

He said investors are just hoping you'll give them a compelling argument for why they should partner with you.

We asked Rose, plus a series of other successful investors (listed below), what persuades them to sign on — and what leaves them skeptical. Below, we've compiled their best advice, on everything from building a pitch deck to writing a thank-you note.

Patrick McGinnis is the managing director of the investment and advisory firm Dirigo Advisors.

David Selverian is an investor at Bessamer Venture Partners.

Laura Sachar is a cofounder and managing partner of StarVest Partners.

Dan Estes is a partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners.

Dave Munichiello is a general partner at GV.

Anu Duggal is the founding partner at Female Founders Fund.

Ashton Kutcher is cofounder of Sound Ventures.

Vanessa Dawson is founder and CEO of the Vinetta Project. 

Show how your product will benefit people

Estes previously told Business Insider's Lydia Ramsey that biotech investors want to know how a new tool will fit into the current standard of care. "The biggest mistake I see is when someone spends more time talking about how a product would affect the market than they do talking about how it would affect the disease it's designed to treat," Estes said.

The same is true for any investor, who wants to know how your business will make people's lives easier.

Don't be cocky

In an interview with Business Insider's Becky Peterson, Munichiello pointed to Stewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack, as an example of an entrepreneur who didn't pretend he had all the answers. (GV invested in Slack in 2014 as part of a $120 million round that valued the company at $1.12 billion, Peterson reported.)

"Stewart's conversation with me wasn't about all of the reasons why Slack was awesome," Munichiello said. "It was, 'Here's how I think about the business. And you may think about it in a different way.' And 'Here are the metrics that I use to measure the business. How do you think about the business?'"

Hold your ground on the issues that matter most

"Entrepreneurs can, and should, articulate deal breakers to their prospective investors," Selverian wrote on Business Insider. "If there's something that's important to you and your business, don't compromise. As long as the entrepreneur's reasoning is justified, many investors will be impressed by the vision and leadership conveyed through deal breakers."

Show that you can sell your idea

"One of the critical tests that I try to run when I'm sitting across from a founder is: Can you sell me your idea?" Kutcher said at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2018. If not, he worries about the company's future."If you can't sell me, how are you going to sell your first hire, your second hire, your third hire?" Kutcher said.

Demonstrate your path to execution

At Business Insider's Startup 2012 conference, Sachar said she needs to believe the entrepreneur can turn their idea into a successful business."If you can't execute, you don't have a company," she said. "A lot of people have ideas."

Tell investors how you plan to expand

Duggal previously told Business Insider every pitch deck should include a five-year growth plan.

Duggal added that she wants to see the costs of building your product or service, the potential profit "on a unit basis," and how that changes at scale. In other words, she said, "As your business grows, do the margins get better?"

Prepare a detailed appendix in addition to the deck

Your deck should be simple and straightforward. During the pitch meeting, Selverian recommends having a detailed appendix that will answer any questions that come up.

Address the potential competition

One common mistake Duggal sees in pitch decks is "not addressing competition or figuring out the market landscape."She added, "When we think about investing in a company, we want to understand — that's great that you have an interesting idea or you spotted something that has the potential to be an exciting business — but we also want to understand what is already in the market."

Explain why you could fail

In 2009, when entrepreneur Jim McKelvey began raising money to launch Square, McKelvey did something very few founders do when trying to secure funding: he listed all the reasons his company would fail, 140 in total. 

"We had robot uprising, Amazon attacks — we had all this stuff — and we made a serious examination of all the things that can kill a startup, and it turns out that nobody does that," McKelvey said in a webinar address.

VCs loved McKelvey's candor. They loved being presented with problems to solve, rather than watching yet another founder try to paste over their startup's weak spots. And they loved how different the pitch felt.

Propose an action plan in a thank-you note

In your follow-up note after the pitch meeting, McGinnis said, "propose concrete next steps for them to react to — amorphous communication conveys amorphous management." Reiterate specifically what you're asking for, and ask whether there are other people you should meet who the investors can introduce you to. 

You can also create FOMO by letting them know when another VC has already agreed to invest.

Determine whether you need to raise capital in the first place

If you're bringing in a maximum of $1 million a year in revenue, "it may be a great, wonderful, much-needed business," Rose said. "You may enjoy it and support your family." But he emphasized, "the economics are just such that there is no way that you can get an investment from me at any reasonable number for that to make economic sense."

This is because outside investors expect outsize returns on their money, often a large multiple of what they put in. And if there's a low-millions ceiling on the revenue your startup can generate or eventual exit price, there's not much incentive for a venture capitalist to write you a check.

In other words, your company may be a "lifestyle startup," which doesn't require venture capital and probably won't ever be worth $1 billion.

Wait to raise capital until you have proof of concept

An entrepreneur's pitch is a "combination of science and faith," said McGinnis — but you want to stay more on the side of science than faith.

McGinnis often sees founders who don't have any proof their idea is viable. You'd be wise to keep your day job and acquire customers and data before you ask a VC for money.

Meet your 'B list' investors first

Start with the "B team," McGinnis said, i.e., the VCs who would be nice to have but aren't your first choice. Get feedback from them so you're more than prepared when you meet the VCs you're really targeting.

Show why you — not just your business — are worth investing in

Remember that you're pitching yourself, Rose said — not just your business plan. "You bet on the jockey, not the horse."

Show why your's is a "no trade off" product

Vanessa Dawson, founder and CEO of the Vinetta Project, is looking for businesses with "no trade off," meaning customers get your service or product without having to sacrifice something in return. For example, consumers want to clean their home but don't want to use chemicals that can do harm, such as adding to the increase in antibiotic-resistant bugs. 

"How are you producing opportunities and products that service the customer without a trade off?" Dawson asked. "I call it a triple bottom line: What's positive for the environment, health, and all other things?"

What to do when you're turned down

One failed pitch doesn't mean investors are uninterested in your business. It may just indicate that you're pitching to the wrong people or at the wrong time. Take it from founders who have been rejected by numerous VCs.

One of those founders, Kathryn Minshew, who is the cofounder and CEO of job-search platform The Muse, said in a podcast that she was rejected 148 times during the company's seed round.

She took any meetings she could get, but in her Series A round, she was more deliberate and gave investors a specific timeframe to meet. She found that the investors who fit her into their schedules were really interested in her company, whereas the investors who didn't make the time were probably not going to back her anyway. 

Jon Werner is the cofounder and CEO of a gift payment app Koya Innovations. One of his previous ventures was an app that pioneered using GPS in mobile phones before it was built into cell phones. He told Business Insider that investor rejection didn't deter him, rather, it gave him time to refine his technology and connect with customers.

"We stuck to our guns, we talked to our customers, we did our research, and we kept going," he said. Once customers were sold on the idea, investors began approaching him. 

Steve Martocci is the CEO of the music-creation platform Splice and the cofounder of GroupMe, which he sold for $85 million. In an interview with Business Insider, Martocci said timing is a major factor to meeting the right people.

He met one of his first lead investors at the same conference where he met his Splice cofounder and VP of engineering. "Timing and luck is at least one third of anyone's success in entrepreneurship," Martocci said. 

Original Article: https://www.businessinsider.com/entrepreneurship-guide-venture-capitalists-tips-startup-pitch-2019-4?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Business_Insider_select&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8&utm_campaign=Insider%20Select%202020-09-30&utm_term=INSIDER%20SELECT%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar

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Article from NYT: How to Network From Home

While team meetings and industry conventions have moved online, the pandemic has opened as many doors as it has closed.

Joohee Yoon

By Julie Weed

Maybe you were never comfortable networking at the office or striking up a conversation over a boxed lunch at a convention, but after half a year working inside your own four walls, oh, the chance to meet new people!

Pandemic or no, for people who want to accelerate learning about new subjects, strengthen career prospects or meet social goals, “networking is at the heart of finding opportunities and exploring them,” according to Miranda Kalinowski, head of global recruiting for Facebook. Fortunately, while team meetings and industry conventions have moved online, the new normal has opened as many doors as it has closed.

Expand Your Network

Connections can and should come from every facet of your life, including your civic, school and social groups, Ms. Kalinowski said. They can also be discovered in new settings, perhaps on the neighborhood walks you take to break up the work-from-home day. People you reach out to may be more open to connecting now, Ms. Kalinowski said, because they are no longer commuting or taking business trips, and have more time to talk.

If the people already in your network are much like you in their education, race, geography and industry, focus on diversifying, said Amy Waninger, author of “Network Beyond Bias.” It’s also OK to join groups that “are not ‘for you,’” she said. “Say you are there to listen and learn — then do that.” Women, for example, may want men at their conferences to hear about the problems they are facing, “not to tell us what to do,” she said, but so they can help fix the office environment.

Ms. Kalinowski said you could also diversify your network by aiming for more “cognitive friction” — connecting with people who have different ways of approaching problems and getting things done or have different priorities or values.

Go Beyond Geography

The pandemic has leveled the playing field in some ways, said Tiana S. Clark, who has worked as an Air Force intelligence analyst, public-school teacher and now in Chicago as a sales director for Microsoft. People aren’t bound by location, personal obligations or financial circumstance that had prevented them from being able to attend conferences or join after-work events.

Networking from home can even offer higher-quality interactions, she said, because “you are reaching out to someone intentionally, someone you’ve done a little research on in advance, not just striking up a conversation with whoever you run into at a conference.”

There are a plethora of professional and interest-based organizations online to join. A few Ms. Kalinowski recommends are Fairy Godboss and Power to Fly, which connect women with job openings and career advice, and Stack Overflow for software developers to learn and share programming knowledge, and check out job openings. LinkedIn suggests groups and newsletters that might be of interest based on your profile and recently began displaying suggestions of “Black voices to follow and amplify” in the app’s My Network page. Many colleges have local alumni clubs now holding online meet-ups and lectures.

“Research some options, try one out and see if it’s helpful,” Ms. Kalinowski said. If it’s not, try another.

Introductions

The easiest and best way to meet someone is for a mutual connection to give you a warm introduction and highlight what you have in common. If you do need to reach out to someone you’ve never met, Ms. Kalinowski recommends engaging that person through some content, like a blog post that he or she has written, to start a conversation, rather than showing up with a request.

How can we help you lead a better, more fulfilling life at home during the pandemic?Ask us a question or tell us what’s on your mind.

When you do ask for something, for example information about a person’s job or industry, do some research on the topic and ask for the person’s opinion on what you’ve learned, rather than asking him or her to explain it all to you. “Don’t make them do the heavy lift,” Ms. Kalinowski said. And, of course, don’t ask for information that is readily available on the internet.

First (Online) Impressions Count

The way you present yourself can make the difference between receiving a response and being ignored, Ms. Clark said, so when she reaches out to someone new, she sends along what she calls a “brand narrative,” a one-slide summary of who she is, her background, her personal attributes and her proudest achievements. It’s a quicker and more holistic view than a résumé that focuses mainly on career, she said.

The goal is to share what you are proud of and “inspire the person to want to meet with you and get to know you better,” she said. Including more aspects of yourself makes it more likely you will find something in common.

Think About What You Can Offer

The power dynamic can feel awkward if a higher-up is providing advice or a connection — what can you offer of value? Beyond a simple thank-you, circle back and say how the advice helped you, Ms. Waninger said. If the person recommended a book, say what you learned from it. If you had a terrific conversation with someone that person put you in touch with, let him or her know. Move beyond the transactional interaction to an ongoing dialogue, she added.

Always include people whom you can be of help to in your network, Ms. Waninger said. You might connect two friends with a shared interest, or scan your company’s job openings for positions you can recommend to people you know might be a good fit.

Beyond One-on-One Interactions

Mentors don’t have to be people you meet with individually. “You can choose your mentor across time and space through a book or a podcast,” and adapt that person’s advice and outlook to your own circumstances, Ms. Waninger said.

Go Ahead Now

Start perhaps with a goal of reaching out to one new person each week, even if you feel satisfied with your existing contacts. In fact, the time to invest in your network is when you least need it, so by the time you do require assistance, you have created a strong support system.

“It’s like building up your credit score so when you need a loan, you’ll be able to get one,” Ms. Waninger said.

Even those who are well established in their fields should take stock. Networks can grow stale, Ms. Kalinowski said, and a “fresh take” can be invigorating.

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Article from NYT: To Build Emotional Strength, Expand Your Brain

The quest to understand something new is a key factor to building the resilience necessary to weather setbacks and navigate life’s volatility.

Monika Aichele

By Kerry Hannon

This article is part of a series on resilience in troubled times — what we can learn about it from history and personal experiences.

Eight years ago, while working as an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor in Cleveland, Gayle Williams-Byers was in the throes of a serial killer case when she decided to take horseback-riding lessons.

This summer, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Ms. Williams-Byers, 46, now a South Euclid Municipal Court judge, started free online classes in American Sign Language offered by Gallaudet University in Washington. She also took a webinar in labor trafficking. In recent years, she has enrolled in a variety of classes and workshops, including one on how to get a commercial driver’s license — not something she plans to act on any time soon.

“I don’t have a reason to use these things in my professional life, but learning helps me to focus better,” Ms. Williams-Byers said. “It’s also something that I have some control over. I take classes in subjects I am just wildly interested in learning about it. When I expand my brain, my wingspan is greater. It lets you get a little higher, to get above the headwinds.”

Ms. Williams-Byers’ quest to understand something new is an example of what many career coaches, authors and experts view as a key factor to building the resilience necessary to weather setbacks and navigate life’s volatility.

The theory: To deal effectively with change, it helps to be engaged in changing yourself. “One of the things that makes us resilient is that when we see a challenge, and when we face a struggle, we engage with it, rather than shut down,” said Simon Sinek, author of “The Infinite Game” and “Start With Why.”

“What I have learned from my career is that something I learned over here helps me over there,” he said. “Even if I don’t know that is happening, any kind of learning benefits all aspects of life.”

Embrace Your Passions

Mr. Sinek, for instance, is a dance lover. “My dancer friends kept telling me I should take classes, and it would help me and my love of the medium. I begrudgingly agreed, and I took some basic ballet classes.”

Even though it was for personal enrichment, those classes helped his developing work as a public speaker. “My posture is much better,” he said. “I move more effortlessly across the stage from my hips, instead of my shoulders.”

When you’re in the process of learning, your viewpoint changes, and you spot connections that you never noticed before. “Resilience is about being adaptable in a variety of different circumstances,” said Dorie Clark, who teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and is the author of “Reinventing You.”

“It is a combination of being able to pick yourself up when there are setbacks, but also it is about having the kind of cross-training necessary to be flexible in an uncertain world where we don’t know what is around the corner,” Ms. Clark said.

Learning Requires Determination

This all may require pushing yourself — not the easiest of tasks in times of crisis. “If they are relatively senior professionals, it has been years, or decades, since they have not been good at something, and it can be enormously psychologically stressful to have to face that,” Ms. Clark said. “Inevitably, when you are in the early stages of learning something you haven’t done before, you are probably going to be bad at it — at least not very good.”

Two years ago, Ms. Clark entered a program to train as a musical theater lyricist. “People in this program have master’s degrees in musical theater writing,” she said. “At first, having to surround myself with people who truly had exponentially more expertise was humiliating on a regular basis, but it was invigorating and inspiring.”

Stay Curious

Being resilient has a lot to do with perspective. “People who commit themselves to a life of learning show up with curiosity,” Mr. Sinek said. “They show up with interest. They show up with a student’s mind-set. You don’t have to be curious about everything. You have to be curious about some things.”

Those who routinely and consciously engage in learning become more confident about their ability to figure things out once a crisis hits, according to Beverly Jones, an executive career coach and author of “Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like A CEO.” “Each time they hit a bump, they spend less time lamenting and quickly turn to determining what they must learn in order to climb out of the hole,” she said.

Moreover, learners develop a more optimistic mind-set, which helps them jump into action, according to Ms. Jones. “In part, this is because each time you become aware of learning something new it feels like a victory,” Ms. Jones said. “You maintain the positivity that is a key to resilience.”

Tailor Your Learning

An important element to remember is that people learn in different ways, Mr. Sinek said. “I can’t read a book a week. I learn by having conversations. I like talking to people who know more than me about any particular subject. I love peppering them with questions. And I love trying to say back in my own words what I think they are telling me to see if I understand it.”

Right now, with his speaking engagements on hold, Mr. Sinek is studying kintsugi, the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with epoxy and a painted gold solution, which highlights the breaks. The concept: By accepting blemishes and flaws, you can produce an even sturdier, more striking, piece of art. On a deeper level, it functions as a symbol of the human experience.

For one thing, it requires patience. “It turns out the epoxy dries slowly,” Mr. Sinek said. “If you do all the pieces at once, it all just falls apart again. I want to be done with my project and move on to the next. I can’t. I have to stick one piece and hold it for an uncomfortable amount of time and then let sit for 24 hours.”

There are myriad paths to learning from taking part in a free online class to reading a nonfiction book to watching a documentary to a complete immersion in a grade-free educational experience.

Chip Conley, 59, for example, founded the Modern Elder Academy, in Baja, Mexico, a group dedicated to midlife learning.

The academy’s core curriculum is based on helping people move from a fixed to a growth mind-set in midlife and beyond, according to Mr. Conley. “Those with a fixed mind-set define success as winning, which becomes problematic when they face difficult circumstances,” he said. “Those with a growth mind-set define success as learning. They’re not trying to prove themselves, but instead improve themselves, so they get less focused on the results and more focused on the journey.”

At the academy, options include collaborative bread baking, improv comedy, learning how to surf or do yoga for the first time and penning a poem to offer to your cohort.

Academic and Online Options

There are also educational opportunities for nontraditional students at some top universities through academic or yearlong programs for executives and other professionals. Students can audit classes, attend lectures, and work on projects with graduate and undergraduate students.

These include the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute, Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, the University of Notre Dame’s Inspired Leadership Initiative, the University of Minnesota’s Advanced Careers Initiative, and the University of Texas at Austin, which offers the Tower Fellows Program.

Three years ago, Glenn Lowenstein, 60, was ready for a new challenge. The Houston resident had sold Lionstone Investments, the real estate investment company he founded in 2001, to Ameriprise. “It was a hard decision,” he said. “The business had been my dream, and then I lived the reality of it for 20 years, and all of a sudden there was a void. It was scary. When there is nothing in front of you, that’s where the resiliency has to come in.”

His solution was to return to campus. Two years ago, he was a Towers fellow. “You have to put yourself out there in an environment you have not been in before,” he said. “It’s a combination of confidence in yourself, enjoyment in exploration and going toward your fear.”

As a fellow, Mr. Lowenstein, for example, enrolled in an advanced graduate philosophy seminar. “It was way above my head,” he said. “I would try my hardest to follow every single word of the conversation. It was fascinating to me the way the graduate students articulated their arguments. It was super esoteric stuff, but I would walk out and be ‘wow, I am learning a new way to communicate here.’”

The best part, though, was his time on campus: “It was so cool to be in an environment where I wasn’t the expert,” he said. “I wasn’t the person relied on to know everything, so I could sit back and enjoy the process of learning, and that’s positive energy. My aim is to keep my mind and body and spirit healthy. I don’t think you can do that without learning.”

For those who can’t afford the time or money required for a high-level fellowship or university program, there are myriad paths to learning. Free or reasonably priced online classes are available through sites like Coursera, EdX, The Great Courses, LinkedIn Learning, MasterClass, Skillshare, TED Talks and Udemy.

Other options (online these days) include adult education centers, local libraries, community colleges and universities, and Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. One Day University, a subscription service ($7.95 a month), offers five livestreaming lectures a week and recorded talks.

For Ms. Williams-Byers, learning is “that extra oomph to turn off the crazy in life and pour yourself into something that is fantastic that you can benefit from,” she said.

That explains her decision to take up a new sport during a particularly difficult case. “I had dealt with murder cases before, but this was unsettling,” she said. “I could feel myself disconnecting from the case because of the emotional drain. The hourlong lessons refocused my mind, so I could bounce back when I returned to the office.”

Original Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/health/resilience-learning-building-skills.html

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Article from WSJ: While Working Remotely, Here’s How to Get Noticed—and Promoted

With millions of people working from home during the pandemic, it’s time for strategies to keep your career on track and not be overlooked

ILLUSTRATION: AJ DUNGO

By Rachel Feintzeig

Ditching your commute and working in your pajamas is nice. But is remote work hindering your career?

As millions of people hunker down in the telecommuting experiment that won’t seem to end—and some toy with making the setup permanent—they are getting a taste of what working-from-home veterans have known for years: It can be hard to climb the ladder when no one can see you.

The best projects and promotions often go to in-office workers. Those logging on from home say they feel invisible at times or find that opportunities for advancement, such as making the leap to manager, are closed off to them. Some face suspicion about what they’re actually doing all day. Without the ability to spot who’s sitting next to whom in a glass-walled conference room or talk with a colleague from another department at the coffee machine, it can be hard to read the power lines of the workplace and make connections.

In some ways, the pandemic has been a great equalizer. Now, at many companies, everyone is working remotely. But even with a level playing field it can be hard to prove over Zoom that you’re ready for a promotion.

Consider life back at the office, where people could see you plugging away each workday. “If you were showing up and sitting in your seat every day and maybe getting in a little earlier than they did and staying a little later than they did, you were a top-notch worker,” says Cali Yost, the chief executive and founder of workplace-consulting company Flex+Strategy Group. “Really, at the end of the day, they had no idea what you’re doing. You could have just been sitting there.”

Without that built-in cue for your manager, the onus shifts to you to prove your value and make sure you’re in the flow. Ms. Yost recommends providing frequent updates on your progress, asking for work and making sure you’re clear on the company’s priorities and expectations. “It’s a much more specific and intentional way of doing your job,” she says.

At ButcherBox, a meat-subscription service based in Boston, workers living in Texas, Pennsylvania and other locations often felt like second-class citizens, says CEO Mike Salguero. Corporate decisions often were made on the fly by pulling a group of people into a conference room at the office, leaving out those farther afield.

“They felt like they were not involved in the important conversations,” Mr. Salguero says. “Basically, their career was being held back by the fact that they were remote, which makes sense.”

Paula Davis, a member support manager based in Dallas, recalls not being included in a meeting in January where the rest of her team made a decision about call-center operations, a key part of her job. Another time, she opened up the email invite to a meeting and found no dial-in or videoconferencing link. She frantically emailed her colleagues, but they didn’t realize she was absent until 10 minutes before the meeting was over. She wondered how she would rise in the ranks at the company if she could so easily be overlooked.

“I just truly felt like an afterthought,” Ms. Davis says. “Does my opinion not matter?”

Ms. Davis’ manager, Joe Kelly, says he felt terrible each time he accidentally left Ms. Davis out, especially since he’d been in her shoes recently, having worked remotely in Colorado for the company for a year. “As much as you try, you definitely make those mistakes,” he says. He began to advocate for Ms. Davis in the office, urging others to loop her in when he’d overhear conversations related to her job. Ms. Davis also started pushing herself to speak up more, pointing out when lapses happened and insisting on dial-in links before meetings.

The pandemic helped solve many of the dynamics at ButcherBox. With everyone working remotely for now, and the company hiring in different locations, Ms. Davis says she sees much more potential for herself there. But Mr. Salguero, the CEO, is still wrestling with how to keep things fair for telecommuters long-term. One thought is to make sure he is out of the office as much as possible so those impromptu meetings can’t happen. “If I’m remote, there’s always that buffer,” he says.

Research shows that remote workers adapt to the pressures and disadvantages of being far from headquarters, but their coping mechanisms come with consequences. A 2019 study called “Get Noticed and Die Trying,” which analyzed interviews with 60 remote workers and dozens of their managers and peers, found that employees who aren’t co-located with their bosses tend to obsessively monitor their email and volunteer to take early-morning and late-night meetings—anything to prove they’re committed and working hard.

The result is burnout, says Paul Leonardi, a co-author of the study and professor of technology management at University of California, Santa Barbara. Many either give up trying to advance or quit their jobs.

It’s worth emphasizing that was the result when working from home was just, well, working from home, as opposed to what you did while also home schooling and navigating a recession and health crisis. These days, aiming for a promotion remotely can be even more fraught.

Haley Bryant, seen with her son, Oliver, was promoted but shifted her approach to work after feeling ‘on a treadmill that was going faster and faster.’ PHOTO: JULIA EISENBERG

Haley Bryant spent the spring trying to ascend to the chief operating officer role at content-marketing firm Animalz while sitting side by side with her son, Oliver, then 4 years old, in their Bethesda, Md., home. Having worked remotely for a few years, she knew she was prone to some unhealthy habits, like working for hours without pausing for food or a break. But now every day felt like both an audition for the new gig and an emergency. The business was shedding customers, employees were overwhelmed and her son was constantly interrupting her, sad that she didn’t have time to color with him. “I just was on a treadmill that was going faster and faster,” she says.

Working long hours, Ms. Bryant began suffering from persistent headaches. Her energy sank. She got the job, but realized her approach during the trial period wasn’t sustainable. She needed to draw firmer boundaries and preserve more time for herself. “It forced me to set a bar and change how I work,” she says. “I’m a human, not a robot.”

How to Score a Promotion From Home

Check in: Keep your boss updated on your accomplishments and raise your hand for projects.

Get aligned: Make sure you know what your manager’s expectations are and where the company’s priorities lie. Think about work you can do that would make your boss’s life easier.

Stay in the flow: Participate in group chats on technology like Slack and schedule random catch-up calls with colleagues, including those not on your immediate team. If travel is an option, schedule office visits.

Speak up: Make sure you have the phone number or link for a meeting beforehand. If you are left out of a meeting, say something.

Express your goals: Make clear you’re aiming for the next step in your career. If you’re open to transitioning back to the office to make that happen, perhaps as part of a hybrid setup where you go in once a week, spell it out for your manager.

Original Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/while-working-remotely-heres-how-to-get-noticedand-promoted-11598184001

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Article from WSJ: Does Robinhood Make It Too Easy to Trade? From Free Stocks to Confetti

Some behavioral researchers say the app’s simplicity encourages novice investors to take bigger risks

Digital confetti has become a Robinhood signature, finding its way into company ads. ROBINHOOD

By Michael Wursthorn and Euirim Choi

Few brokerage apps have captured people’s attention like Robinhood Markets Inc. The Silicon Valley company has turned the complex process of trading stocks into a simple, free swipe across a screen.

But some behavioral researchers contend that that simplicity is turning investing into a game, and nudging inexperienced investors to take bigger risks.

Robinhood and other newer trading apps such as eToro USA LLC and Webull Financial LLC inherit design elements from tech companies that influence user behavior to desired outcomes: Buy a product, use a service, view advertising. Traditional brokerage apps are stodgy. Robinhood blasts users’ screens with digital confetti and makes Netflix-style recommendations for stocks to buy. Buttons tapped to buy a stock are bigger and brighter than those for canceling a trade.

Such cues can exacerbate humans’ behavioral biases and can affect investing behavior, said Thomas Ramsøy, a neuropsychologist who is chief executive of Neurons Inc., an applied neuroscience company.

“If it feels right, we tend to go for it,” he said.

The Robinhood app is set in vivid colors. Its behavior incentives include giving users a trial run with free stock and making money instantly available to trade. Some cues nudge users to repeat certain behaviors and buy stocks based on what other people purchased.

Robinhood Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Howard said the app doesn’t gamify trading or encourage risky behavior. The company was founded with the purpose of erasing barriers to investing and provides a range of educational content on trading through its website, she added.

“We believe that broader participation in the markets is more democratic and can bring opportunities to many. Those who dismiss retail investors as gamblers or gamers perpetuate the myth that investing is only for the wealthy and highly educated,” Ms. Howard said.

“We built Robinhood to be a platform for customers to learn and invest responsibly, and most of our customers use a buy-and-hold strategy with their investments.”

A Robinhood spokeswoman added the brokerage doesn’t make recommendations to buy and sell securities.

The app shows users related stocks that other Robinhood users also own.

Robinhood’s minimal interface has proved to be a draw for younger investors. The brokerage boasts of having 13 million users who have a median age of 31, and was recently valued at $11.2 billion through a new fundraising round disclosed on Monday. The company doesn’t specify how many accounts are active.

Mr. Ramsøy, the neuropsychologist, said the simplified interface can have benefits: Reducing the amount of information visible on the screen can lower the amount of mental stress that can otherwise overload users, and help users make smarter decisions. Yet, he said, the nudges can work in the other direction to prod users into less rational decisions.

Lisa Silva started trading on Robinhood the way many people do: Her friend texted her a referral link. She and her referring friend received a free share for her efforts, choosing among three stocks displayed on what looks like a virtual lottery scratch card.

Robinhood says that its app’s 13 million users have a median age of 31.

“Robinhood is the gateway,” said Ms. Silva, who is 35 years old and lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., with her son.

Ms. Silva received a share of department store Macy’s Inc., and she sold it soon after.

“I knew nothing about trading or the stock market. It really simplified it and was user-friendly from the beginning.”

Now, Ms. Silva spends as much as five hours a day researching and trading penny stocks on her iPhone.

For self-directed brokerages like Robinhood, user trading generates money for the companies even when trades are free.

Marshini Chetty, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago specializing in human-computer interaction, said Robinhood’s interface shares characteristics of what the software industry calls “dark patterns”—a design choice that steers users down a desired path.

For instance, once you start a trade on Robinhood, it is easier to move forward than to back out of it.

While confirming the purchase requires a swipe up, there is no clear cancel button. To back out of a trade, the user has to press a link labeled “edit” on the top-left corner and then press an X button.

At rival Webull, users are presented with a “confirm” button to proceed with a trade and an X above that would cancel it. Webull also shows users a toggle to skip confirmations in the future.

But on apps from more traditional brokerages, such as Charles Schwab Corp. SCHW -0.29% and E*Trade Financial Corp., trade confirmations include labeled options to either place the order or cancel it.

Robinhood prompts users to transfer money from their bank accounts and ensures deposits of as much as $1,000 are immediately available for trading—a feature also available on Webull. Schwab, by contrast, takes at least one business day to clear funds and allow users to start trading.

“It’s important to distinguish between accessible, modern design and gamification,” Ms. Howard said. “The incentives we offer, such as free stock, give people a chance to learn about investing and companies.”

All brokerages are incentivized to encourage users to trade. They earn money by sending customer orders to trading firms, which execute them. The practice, called payment for order flow, is controversial but legal in the brokerage industry, helping make commission-free trading possible. While customer orders must be executed at the best-available price, trading firms have many ways to use the trades to their advantage, including to mask larger buying and selling by the firm or its clients.

Robinhood made more than $270 million from selling order flow in the first six months of the year, according to securities filings that were compiled by Piper Sandler analyst Richard Repetto. Schwab made roughly $120 million, while E*Trade pulled in about $190 million. TD AmeriTrade Holding Corp. topped those three, earning more than $525 million.

Brokerages generate revenue on free trades by sending customer orders to trading firms in exchange for cash, known as payment for order flow.

“Receipt for order flow is a common, legal and regulated industry business practice,” the Robinhood spokeswoman said.

After Ms. Silva’s initial Robinhood deposit, confetti rained down across her screen, congratulating her.

“It makes people think they’re winning,” Ms. Silva said of the graphic.

The confetti graphic has become a Robinhood signature, finding its way into company advertising. “The animation marks a milestone moment,” said Robinhood’s Ms. Howard, who added that confetti isn’t displayed on every trade or deposit.

Getting into Robinhood is far easier than getting out. Transferring accounts to another brokerage takes as long as a week, which is common in the brokerage industry. Ms. Silva, who moved most of her activity to rival Webull, still keeps trading penny stocks in her Robinhood account because she fears their prices could swing too much during the time it takes to transfer them.

Webull, founded in 2017 and based in New York, features a more sophisticated interface and more trading options than Robinhood, including data on short sellers, wider trading windows and a social-media feed similar to Twitter. It also employs bright colors and graphics touting promotions to its roughly 750,000 daily active users, who are mostly in the U.S.

A recent promotion, Webull’s Summer Referral Competition, pits users in a referral race for free shares in technology stocks Facebook Inc., Amazon. com Inc., Apple Inc., Netflix Inc. or Google parent Alphabet Inc. A leaderboard, similar to what people see in videogames and contests, shows users where they stand.

“We are successfully utilizing peer marketing that is extremely popular with our millennial user demographic,” a Webull spokesperson said.

Another rival, eToro, offers cryptocurrency trading in the U.S. and plans to start trading stocks next year. It gives $50 for each referral and to new users.

The platform, which has 14 million users around the world, gives users the option to copy trades made by other people, said Guy Hirsch, eToro’s U.S. managing director. About one-eighth of its U.S. users use the service, which is aimed at traders who don’t have the time to do their own research or are new to investing.

Users with enough copycats are eligible to earn 2% of the total money that is copying them, he added.

“Behavioral research and design elements can also play a positive role in educating retail investrs about investing and risks,” an eToro spokeswoman added, “as well as preventing undesired outcomes such as losing more than one has.”

Original Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/confetti-free-stocks-does-robinhoods-design-make-trading-too-easy-11597915801

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Article from WSJ: Kids’ Chores Starting to Bore? New Apps, Assistants and Smart Appliances Can Motivate Them

As housework piles up with families spending more time at home, parents are unloading the chore-nagging to smart-appliance apps, virtual assistants

As families enter a new season of remote work and school, the dishes will continue to pile up. Now, parents can have virtual assistants and apps sync with smart appliances to remind the kids to unload the dishwasher. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

By Julie Jargon

Reminding kids to make their beds, unload the dishwasher and feed the cat is getting really old as the months of quarantine drag on. If only there was a way to outsource all that nagging…

Instead of telling your kids to unload the dishwasher for the millionth time, why not program virtual assistants to do it for you, without any twinge of exasperation? And if you have high-end smart appliances, they can notify the kids when the dishes are clean.

BSH Home Appliances, maker of appliances from brands including Bosch and Thermador, recently began integrating its smart appliances with S’moresUp, a family-management app that can notify the kids when the dishes are ready to be unloaded or the laundry is dry. You can even assign the kids to make you coffee. Some of BSH’s luxury coffee makers can notify the app when the drip tray needs emptying or the bean container needs refilling. The appliances can also communicate with Amazon AMZN -0.56% and Google’s virtual assistants.

If you don’t have fancy appliances, that’s OK—there are other ways to unload the mental burden of being your kids’ constant reminder.

When Tiffany Lewis, a mother of three in Leland, N.C., pulls into her driveway with groceries, she opens her phone’s Alexa app and commands the virtual assistant to announce that she is back and needs help carrying in the food. Echo Dots in the kids’ bedrooms and the Facebook Portal in the kitchen trumpet her command.

“They can’t back-talk Alexa,” she said. “When she says something, that’s it.”

She also has Alexa announce when it’s time to help set the table for dinner and for the kids to bring her their laundry. For a while she was using Alexa to remind her 9-year-old son to feed the dog every morning. To make sure he actually did it, she installed a motion sensor in the dog’s food bin that she connected to Alexa through IFTTT (which stands for “if this then that”) so she would hear an announcement when the dog had been fed.

“Kids are notorious for saying, ‘Yeah, I did that.’ It gives me peace of mind to know there’s data to back it up,” said Ms. Lewis. “After about a month, he got to a point where he would just do it before Alexa told him to, so we were able to taper off the reminders, which is something I did not expect.”

Still, the apps and assistants are one more thing to manage. Is it easier to just yell out reminders than to program software to do it?

Reeves Xavier, co-founder of S’moresUp, said some app users with teens have complained about having to remind their kids to go on the app to see their chores. Families that have had a consistent chore routine, starting when children were younger, have had better success with it, said Priya Rajendran, the other co-founder.

S’moresUp allows kids to earn virtual s’mores for doing chores. When the kids have enough saved up, they can cash them in for rewards chosen by the family. Most features of the app, such as chore assignments (including those dishwasher alerts) are free. But parents who pay $4.99 a month get access to extra features such as the ability to create penalties for tardiness. There are no ads in the app, which currently has 150,000 registered families.

Ms. Rajendran said they are in talks with other appliance makers about syncing the app with more smart appliances.

Several parents told me that chore apps are great except when their kids have lost phone privileges or when they’re trying to keep kids off their devices. That’s why many parents prefer using virtual assistants to verbally prod their kids.

“Taking a little time to set up reminders helps save a ton of time later,” said Melissa Griffin, a Texas mom who runs a popular Facebook page where she offers parenting tips.

Ms. Griffin became an Alexa evangelist after she received an Echo smart speaker as a housewarming gift two years ago. Now she has Alexa-enabled devices throughout her house and relies on the assistant for everything from making grocery lists to reminding her kids to take medicine.

Most Alexa reminders can be set with your voice. “I’ll say, ‘Alexa, set a reminder to take out the trash,’ and Alexa will ask how often,” she said.

Parents can also assign, track and reward weekly chores through a chore chart on Alexa’s skill blueprints.

Ms. Griffin has her three children create many of their own reminders because she wants them to take ownership of their tasks. “Nagging and reminding isn’t something I do anymore. They have the reminders set up and if it fails, they have a problem to solve,” she said.

Her 12-year-old son didn’t get the recycling out to the curb in time recently and realized he was actually setting his reminder too early. When Alexa told him to take out the recycling at 6 p.m., he was often eating dinner or doing other things and he would forget. Now that he reset the reminder for 9 p.m., he remembers to take it out right before he heads to bed.

Google’s “assignable reminders” function on devices that run Google Assistant—such as certain Android phones and tablets, Google smart speakers, Nest Hubs and more—works similarly, giving parents the ability to set task notifications.

Google recently added new features to Google Assistant, including the ability to broadcast a reminder to a specific room or device. Another feature, “family bell,” allows parents to create custom announcements on smart displays and speakers, accompanied by a chime, when it’s time to begin a new task, such as unloading the dishwasher or logging in for a virtual class.

The larger question is, are all these electronic chore charts and digital reminders a crutch? Do they prevent kids from becoming self-reliant?

Advocates of virtual helpers say they simply take the place of parental reminders, helping kids learn, through the development of routines, what to do on their own. “It helps create positive reinforcement around habit-building for kids and helps them manage their own time versus the parents having to manage their time,” said Amazon Kids and Family spokeswoman Dawn Brun.

Ms. Lewis said relying on a virtual assistant is as much about saving her own sanity as it is about teaching her kids responsibility. “It makes me feel like I’m an adult and I have life figured out,” she said.

Original Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/kids-chores-starting-to-bore-new-apps-assistants-and-smart-appliances-can-motivate-them-11597752001?st=vgryqoodign73g0

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Article from NYT: Reclaim That Commute Time For Yourself

By Anna Goldfarb

Keep the tradition.

Go outside.

Mark the day’s end. 

Adopt quiet times. 

Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/03/burst/reclaim-commute-time.html?searchResultPosition=1

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Article from NYT: Sneak In Some Exercise

Yes, we are moving less. But on Zoom, no one has to know you’re doing squats.

Elena Xausa

By Kelly DiNardo

There’s a reason “Covid curves” and “the Quarantine 15” are now commonplace terms. While researchers are beginning to look at the connection between the pandemic and weight gain, it’s apparent that we’re moving less during this topsy-turvy period: A preliminary study published in May and led by Iowa State University and Trinity College Dublin reported an average 32 percent reduction in physical activity once social distancing went into effect.

Being active is a huge health boost. It improves mood, reduces stress, increases energy, enhances brain function, lowers risk of chronic disease, and so much more. And research published in medical and health journals continues to emerge supporting the idea that unless you’re training for something specific, like a marathon, short bouts of exercise throughout the day have the same benefits as continuous workouts. Here are a few ways to sneak in some extra movement.

Move while you wait

Use the time it takes to brew coffee, warm up lunch or boil water to squeeze in mini-workouts. Rotate through 10 reps of each of these until the microwave dings.

Kitchen Counter Push-ups: Stand facing the counter and place your hands on the edge just slightly wider than shoulder width. Keep your arms straight and step your feet back so your body forms a plank. Keep the heels lifted, abdominal muscles engaged and back straight. Inhale and bend your elbows out to the side as you lower your chest to the counter. Exhale as you push back up.

Side Lunges: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and toes pointing forward. Take a wide step out to the right as you press your hips back while keeping the left leg straight and both soles of the feet on the ground. Push yourself back to the starting position and lunge to the left.

Standing Bicycle Crunches: Stand tall with feet slightly wider than your hips. Interlace your hands and place them behind your head with elbows wide. Raise your right knee up as high as you can as you simultaneously twist your torso to the right and draw your left elbow to the lifted knee. Alternate between sides.

Milk Jug Swings: Grab a bottle of milk, water or orange juice, and make sure the lid is on firmly. Stand tall with feet hip-width apart and hold the jug with both hands. Bend your knees, shift your weight into the heels, lower the butt back and bring the jug between the legs. Drive through your heels and simultaneously straighten your legs and extend your arms horizontally in front of your chest, contracting your abdominal muscles and squeezing the glute muscles as you rise. As the jug descends, shift your weight back into the heels, hinging at the hips and returning to a slight squat.

Multitask your muscles

Find moments throughout the day to incorporate movement into more mundane tasks. It’s not difficult.

Toothbrush Squats: Use this two-minute morning routine to wake up your lower body by squatting while you brush your teeth. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your chest up, bend your knees and push your hips back until the back of your thighs are parallel with the floor. Pause so you’re not using momentum to push back up. Then, drive through your heels and press back up to standing.

Vacuum Lunges: Step into a full lunge when vacuuming or mopping, and you’ll engage the lower body and abdominal muscles. As you reach the vacuum forward, step one foot forward, bend the back knee and lower straight down. Keep your torso straight and abs in as you push through the front heel, pull the vacuum back and return to standing. Alternate legs.

Dishwashing Lifts: While standing at the sink, add in calf raises to tone the lower legs and glute muscles. Lift your heels and come up onto the balls of your feet as high as you can. Squeeze your glute muscles at the top and lower your heels.

Toothbrush Rolls: Foot massage improves circulation, decreases stress and releases endorphins, all of which promotes better sleep. Use your before-bed brush to roll out the feet. Place a tennis or similar ball under the ball of your foot. Put as much weight on it as you can tolerate, and roll the ball back and forth the length of your foot several times. Repeat with the other foot.

Walk while you talk Take that work call outside for a walk. Start by asking if it’s OK to walk while you talk, and let them know they may hear some background noise. Be sure to use earbuds or headphones. Then pick up the pace as much as you can without huffing and puffing while you talk. If you can, aim for a speed of three miles per hour (or a 20-minute mile). Lastly, remember that not every meeting is walk-and-talk appropriate.

Zoom and move

When you can’t slip outside for a walking meeting, turn off the video and sneak in a short desk workout or stretch session. Again, consider whether it would be appropriate for you to do so.

Trash Can Taps: Stand in front of a small garbage can and shift your balance to one foot and then tap the edge of the can with the other. Repeat. Speed up to make it more intense.

Triceps Dips: Scoot to the edge of your chair (make sure it’s stationary). Place palms flat on the edge of the chair with fingers facing forward. Lower yourself until your elbows are bent back between 45 and 90 degrees. Keep your back straight and close to the chair. Press into your palms to straighten your arms and return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.

The Prayer: Sit upright with both feet flat on the floor. Bring your hands together in a prayer position in front of your chest. Push your hands together as actively as you can for 30 to 60 seconds and release.

Wall Sit: Stand with your back against a wall. Walk your feet out and slide your body down until your hips are level with your knees and your knees are at a 90-degree angle. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds and release.

Standing Hamstring Curls: Stand in front of your desk and lightly hold onto the edge for support. Shift your weight onto your left leg, bend your right knee and bring your heel to your butt. Lower the foot. Repeat 10 times and switch legs.

Interrupt your regularly scheduled sitting

Use your binge-watching TV time to your advantage. Instead of skipping the closing credits, recap and opening credits, rotate through 10 reps of these couch moves until the show returns.

Couch Climbers: Face the sofa and place your hands on the seat at shoulder width and step back to create a straight line with your body. Engage your abs, squeeze your glute muscles and push the heels back. Hold this plank position for 10 seconds. Then draw one knee and then the other to your chest as if you were running. Repeat for 30 seconds.

Hip Thrusts: Start in an elevated bridge position with your upper back resting on the seat of the couch, feet on the floor and knees bent. Interlace your hands behind your head, hinge at the hips to lower your bottom to the ground and squeeze the glute muscles to lift back up to starting position. Repeat 10 times.

Decline Push-up: Come into a high plank position with your feet on the edge of the sofa and your hands on the floor at shoulder width. Lower your chest toward the ground by bending your elbows out to the side. Push up to the starting position. This is an advanced push-up variation so do as many as you can without compromising your form.

Original Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/at-home/coronavirus-at-home-quick-exercises.html