29 October 2008
And following on from the workafrolic piece last week, comes news that hard working, conscientious people, may live a little longer than other people, according to a Marie Claire article. Why? Mainly because they are so busy working they have little time for excesses and taking life threatening risks.
Nearly 9,000 took part in the study to analyse personality and lifespan and lead researcher Dr Howard Friedman concluded: “Highly conscientious people live on average two to four years longer.” “There is evidence for several sorts of reasons. Conscientious folks are less likely to smoke, drink to excess or take too many risks.” He added: “But it is also true that conscientious folks lead life patterns that are more stable and less stressful.”
New Scientist subscribers can view the original source article here.
Update: The Marie Claire article is no longer online.
Originally published Wednesday 29 October 2008.
22 October 2008
Workafrolic is the latest buzzword of a neologism to pique my curiosity and it will no doubt lead to an obsession in due course. Richard St. John author of Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich defines a workafrolic in a recent interview with The Telegram…
Successful people work hard, but they love it. They’re “workafrolics”, St. John says, because they have fun working.
Australian graphic designer Sonya Mefaddi provided a slightly more real life definition in an article in the SMH MyCareer liftout last weekend (18-19 October 2008, page 3):
If I am out at a club with friends, I often think I’d rather be at home working.
Never thought I’d say this, but her words strike a definite chord with me. At this point in time anyway.
Update: The Telegram article is no longer online.
Originally published Wednesday 22 October 2008.
7 October 2008
While email systems make a breeze of distributing spam messages en masse, the medium has another not so apparent benefit, it makes being deceptive or untruthful far easier. Something, seemingly, not so simple to accomplish in face-to-face, or even in handwritten, communications.
Experts have long known that it is easier to lie in writing than in real life, where deception is made more difficult by physical prompts such as eye contact. But psychological tests conducted by business professors at Rutgers, Lehigh and DePaul universities in the US found people are significantly more likely to lie in emails than in handwritten documents.
I mean, could you look someone in the eye and tell them “your pills could augment their extension”, for example? No: better you send them an email.
Originally published Tuesday 7 October 2008, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
