February already: It's action time.
January is when we make promises to ourselves. February is when we could use a solid nudge in the right direction.
Hi all,
This is the monthly free full-edition of Noise Reduction for all members. It’s great to see you here, somewhat unbelievably, in February already.
The world keeps turning. Challenging events keep coming up. Auckland has had more than it’s fair share already in 2023. What was first estimated to be a 1 in 500 year rain event resulting in widespread flooding and land damage, including loss of life is now being looked at as possibly a 1 in 1000 year event. Although this makes this very much an outlier event when comparing to events in the past, I wonder how much this will be true in the future. I suspect that it may become alarmingly more common and widespread.
This analysis on what needs to happen in Auckland may well be applicable in other areas of the world too. As I read from other writers in the past week, New Zealand is falling behind on climate change mitigation and may be left with some very difficult decisions to make. But it is an election year, where difficult political decisions tend to be kicked into the long grass.
I am not hopeful.
If an event like this cannot precipitate a movement for transformational change led by the biggest population centre in the country, as well as the economic engine, what will? What do you think?
Some changes here: I’ve made the option for monthly membership significantly cheaper, dropping from 6 US dollars a month to 5 NZ dollars a month. On current exchange rates, that’s a 35% reduction in monthly membership.
And monthly membership is my preferred model now - you’ll see that I can’t remove the annual membership option, but I can make it prohibitively expensive!
Thank you to all my paid members - knowing that you support me means a lot. And I hope to welcome a few more of you aboard soon. It’s the cost of a coffee for at least 4 newsletters from me per month, bringing you guidance, fun and inspiration.
Babies remember faces despite face masks
A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, allays those concerns, finding that 6- to 9-month-old babies can form memories of masked faces and recognize those faces when unmasked. This is reassuring, because this is definitely something I have been thinking on and concerned about. Learning faces is central to how babies learn to talk, perceive emotions, and develop relationships with their caregivers.
“When babies learned a masked face, and then they saw that face again unmasked, they recognized it,” DeBolt said.
However, when the order was reversed, babies did not show strong recognition of masked faces that they first saw unmasked. DeBolt said that was similar to her own experience of not instantly recognizing a friend who was wearing a face mask.
Why do job satisfaction surveys fail?
Companies nationwide spend hundreds of millions of dollars assessing their workers’ satisfaction and engagement. Some have added quarterly, monthly and even weekly check-ins to their annual surveys.
But, according to a recent Gallup report, stress among workers is globally at a record high.
So, where’s the disconnect? Are surveys the wrong tool? Are employees not telling their managers the truth about their dissatisfactions? Or are the bosses not listening?
“Many companies that do engagement surveys are so disappointed in the results that they can’t bring themselves to share them with employees”
Read the full story at the New York Times, made free for readers of Noise Reduction.
Joy at the Café
An analysis of nearly 2 million Tweets made by people in London and San Francisco explores specific events and types of locations that are associated with different emotions. Train stations and other transportation hubs were associated with less joy and more disgust, while hotels and restaurants were linked to a greater expression of joy.
… Anger was higher during the middle of the week (on Wednesday) and less during the weekends (particularly Saturday and Sunday). The least amount of Anticipation was shown on Sunday compared to the weekdays (such as during Friday). The weekends also tended to have a lower amount of Sadness when compared to the weekdays.
… The high levels of Joy in the Hotel & Restaurant category could perhaps be explained by people tweeting about their food and tourist tweeting about their holiday. A manual inspection showed that several restaurants types in San Francisco and tourist accommodation types (motel, hostels) in London had high levels of Joy.
Why do cats and dogs get the zoomies?
Our dog does this. Maybe yours does too. Odds are pretty likely it does. But I didn’t know cats do it too. Zoomies involve intense periods of high-energy activity including running, spinning, jumping and rolling. All at top speed. But why?
Zoomies are mentioned a lot online, but there is a real lack of scientific research on what causes them, how often they occur, or even an official definition of what they are. Ask yourself: am I invited to the zoomie?
In case you didn't know, you can buy my books Finding Calm, The Little Book of Sleep (also available on Kindle Unlimited), and the audiobook of my first book, Steady.
Hi Sarb, with regard to your comment about transformational change (and, yes, I did get the precipitate (or precipitation) pun) I think to an extent it depends on how directly it affects each individual. In my opinion, we often won't or don't make changes unless something directly affects us. As an example, with regard to flooding, I live on a hill that isn't particularly steep and the water from heavy rain runs off down the hill; it doesn't have a big impact on me. But if I was living at the bottom of the hill, I expect my view would be somewhat different.