Link Roundup #88: 10 Things to Know This Week
1. The Real Reason You Avoid Looking At Your Credit Card Statement – Refinery29
Term of the day: Money avoidance. It’s when you feel uncomfortable and frustrated by your financial life (credit card debt, spent too much last month etc) and avoid checking your bank account and doing something about it. You pretend the problem is not there.
2. If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance. – MIT Technology Review
If you’re smart but not rich (yet), don’t beat yourself too hard. It’s just luck.
The wealthiest individuals are typically not the most talented or anywhere near it. “The maximum success never coincides with the maximum talent, and vice-versa,” say the researchers.
So if not talent, what other factor causes this skewed wealth distribution? “Our simulation clearly shows that such a factor is just pure luck,” say Pluchino and co.
This tells me 2 things: (1) we really have to stop thinking multi-billionaires are more talented (and more deserving of their wealth) when they are just luckier, and (2) wow is it really down to luck? That sucks.
Until I found out you can make your own luck.
3. The ‘serendipity mindset’: how to make your own luck – The Guardian
You can make your own luck by adopting the ‘serendipity mindset’; welcoming the unexpected and connecting the dots. In the words of Dr Chistian Busch, author of The Serendipity Mindset, The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck,
“Serendipity is smart, active luck,” he says. “It’s when you see something in the unexpected and connect the dots. It’s different from blind luck, which you can’t really influence.”
I really love the suggestion to actively seed for opportunities by giving out ‘hooks’ to people you meet.
“There’s always that dreaded question: ‘What do you do’,” says Busch. “You can say: ‘I’m a journalist, but recently I started reading about philosophy, and what I’m really interested in is exploring science.’
He’s given you three potential ‘hooks’. He’s seeding potential dots so that you can connect them. You could respond, ‘Oh what a coincidence, I just started reading this book on philosophy and I want to set up a book club.’”
That is such a practical and genius way to connect with more people, who may help you get to where you want to be (and vice versa)!
4. Trapped in the Metaverse: Here’s What 24 Hours Feels Like – WSJ
Like everyone else, I’m intrigued by the Metaverse concept as well. Glad to stumble upon this journalist’s experiment where she spent 24 hours in VR and switched between virtual worlds (and avatars) using VR headset.
After watching, the only thing I feel like trying is the game. Seems fun as heck.
5. I lost my first job ever to depression: Here’s how I healed – MadnessTBH
Highly appreciate this raw post on the reality of trying to keep a job while battling depression. Hope it helps anyone out there to keep trying to find methods and medications that may work for you
6. Kedah bans all 4D shops – FMT
So Kedah has effectively banned gambling in the state. As much as I agree that gambling is a social ill, I also know that the activity will only go underground. Human behaviour is not that easy to change. Addiction is not easy at all to fix.
If you (or someone you love) *must* gamble, use DeFi platforms like PoolTogether. Even if you don’t win the lottery, the platform will still return your participation fee aka cost of your lottery tickets to you.
Look up no-loss lottery.
7. Use This 1 Easy Hack Every Day to Become a More Positive Person, Backed by Research – Inc
People tend to gravitate to likeable people, who also tend to be positive people.
How do you be more positive? That’s a million-dollar question, but this is a pretty good start: changing your vocabulary from consequence thinking to value and opportunity thinking.
The article gave some really good examples of how it looks in practice. If you tend to be on the negative side, and want to be more positive, then this article is a good read.
8. This 5-minute trick can help you get the job – Fast Co
This article is for those of you who are not as good looking as your peers. Read the article – it makes a good case for using power poses during job interviews, which may give you the edge you need to equalise human’s natural bias and preference for favouring the more attractive person.
Oh yes, good-looking people do have it better.
On average, good-looking people earn higher pay, receive higher performance evaluations, and have a better chance of being promoted. To our chagrin, even better-looking professors get higher teaching evaluations. Particularly dismaying is the evidence that more attractive candidates are more likely to be hired in the first place, meaning that this trend starts even before people have a chance to prove themselves on the job.
9. Mastercard set to launch Asia’s first crypto-linked cards that you can use anywhere – SoyaCincau
I had one of these crypto cards. They were around in 2016, got banned and blocked from operating (remember TenX? Or Wirex?) and now making a comeback in 2021 woah
10. This Heat Map Of Klang Valley Shows How Much You Need To Make To Afford A Home In Any Area – Says
What a cool use of data analytics to visualise home loan eligibility!
