Connecting is about developing quality relationships. The literature is clear that the happiest people in the world are those who have the best relationships. This is not surprising. We’re social creatures and our need for connection and love is as real as our need for food and shelter. The happiest people are good at building friendships and/or loving relationships within their families.

Studies show that people who pursue intrinsic goals like gratitude, compassion, personal growth, and meaningful relationships are much happier than those who pursue extrinsic goals such as a big house, nice car or fancy job title, etc.

One last point we can learn from the science of happiness is about neuroplasticity. Whereas we used to believe that the structure of the brain was set early in life, we now know that the brain can actually adapt and change over time. Our brain changes depending on how we use it. Just like we can grow strength in an arm through exercise, we can strengthen areas of our brain if we use those areas of the brain.

People who cultivate appreciation and gratitude, consistently, are more hopeful, confident, energetic and happier. They suffer less depression and stress. These people report a greater sense of purpose, more control over their lives, greater self-acceptance, more optimism.  And they are more empathetic, more forgiving, less materialistic and have more positive ways of coping with difficulties.

People who are happier are not so because life treats them differently but because they make better choices. They have better mental strategies for dealing with life. And the good news is that these strategies can be learned.

Simply highlight the title of each section and add a note beginning with a period (.) followed by an h (for "heading") and then the number 1 through 3 representing the section's position in the hierarchy. For example, with a book organized into parts, chapters, and sections, you would denote all parts as .h1, all chapters as .h2, and all sections as .h3.

Simply highlight the first string of text you want to combine and add the note .c1 ("c" for "concatenate"). Then, highlight the second string of text and add the note .c2. Upon importing into Readwise, these two highlights will be combined into a single annotation.

"The Art of Communication is the Language of Leadership" - James Humes

[Y]ou do want to make the first offer. You want to get ready and prepared. Understanding the weakness of the other side’s alternatives so that you set the right goal, that you will get a tremendous advantage from leading in a negotiation rather than following. When I lead, I set the table with the issues that we’re discussing. When I lead and frame the discussion, I’m actually in the relationship-enhancing position because I make an offer and build a rationale and you have to react, respond to critique, get as opposed to me critiquing your offer.

Simply put, there can be no data science without data engineering. Data engineering is the foundation for a successful data-driven company.

Behavioral economics teaches us that humans make a vast majority of their decisions based on simple mental shortcuts and rules of thumb, which are “usually correct” in common situations, but often turn out to be catastrophically wrong in edge cases

An incentive is any design element of a system that influences the behavior of system participants by changing the relative costs and benefits of choices those participants may make.

mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases. To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, they teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.

the mRNA in the vaccine contains instructions to tell our body how to build a coronavirus spike protein. As soon as we do that, our immune system freaks out, as it’s supposed to, and creates antibodies to the spike protein. The mRNA is destroyed shortly after the injection, but the antibodies stick around. They can then recognize the real virus if we ever encounter it in the wild.

2020 NWEA MAP Growth normative data overview