“A Local hangout—a Pub, a Park, a Coffee Shop—Is As Important to Health As a Doctor or Therapist.”

Posted On Nov 2, 2019 By admin With Comments Off

Bob Sullivan and I ought to have friends for years, through the “Invisible Institute, ” a splendid writers’ group to which we both belong. He’s a veteran reporter and the author of five books, including the New York Times bestsellers, Gotcha Capitalism and Stop Getting Ripped Off. He’s prevailed numerous bestows, such as the Society of Professional Correspondent Public Service Award, a Peabody award, and the Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award. He wasted roughly two decades working at MSNBC.com and NBC News, and he’s now a syndicated columnist and frequent TV guest.

If you affection podcasts: he’s the co-host of the fascinating podcast Breach, which examines history’s biggest spoofing legends, and he’s co-host of the newish weekly podcast So, Bob, which tackles narratives about the unintended consequences of technology.[ Here’s the chapter where I joined Bob to talk about happiness, the Four Tendencies, and technology .]

His new book is The Barstool MBA: Why Running a Bar Beats Running to Business School. What a great concept! I recollect the first time he told me the idea for this book. I believed, boy, everyone is going to want to read it.

I couldn’t wait to talk to Bob about pleasure, attires, and productivity.

Gretchen: What’s a simple activity or habit that generally starts you happier, healthier, most productive, or most creative?

Bob: Bike riding , no question. It makes me feel like a 10 -year-old boy again. I shed my motorcycle on the car whenever I “re going away”, and I’m ever looking for a brand-new route. When I can, I like making long goes on rails-to-trails projects–my favorite is the Katy Trail in Missouri, which gusts from St. Louis to Kansas City along the Missouri River. Just gorgeous and pleasant. Last-place time for my( 50 th !) birthday I did a 100 -mile Katy Trail ride. But the majority of cases, there isn’t time for that. Even a speedy 10 -minute ride from one coffee shop to the next improves me clear my psyche when my epoch isn’t going well. The good thing about cycling is, like float, it’s low impact, so you aren’t as likely to injure joints, and God willing, I’ll be able to do this thing that makes me feel like a little kid deep into my old age.

What’s something you know now about prosperity that you didn’t know when you were 18 years old?

Life is a lot longer than I thought it was. I looked at at old-time letters or just think of bad times and … it sounded like I guessed the world had ended. But a adviser once told me to always retain: “Today is not all days.” Time, and perspective, does heal all winds. Or at least, era compiles things better.

You’ve done fascinating study. What has surprised or plotted you–or your readers–most?

With Barstool MBA, we learned a lot about the superpower of loneliness. I’m one who believes that most corporation are in the loneliness business in one practice or another. And there’s plenty of( very sad) research showing that people are becoming more and more lonely, even in our supposedly connected macrocosm. So bars, the neighbourhood saloon, these institutions stand as remedies to the isolation of modern life. At least, when they are at their best, they do. I believe this is so important. A regional hangout–a saloon, a ballpark, a coffee shop, some sort of third place–is just as important to state as a doctor or therapist.

Have you ever managed to gain a challenging healthy habit–or to break an harmful attire? If so, how did you make love?

I stopped drinking soft drinks a few years ago. I used to suck 2-4 cans of soda a era, every day. When I ran in the software business, they would essentially stole you up to an IV caffeinated soft drinks. Then one day I read a assortment of substance about how harmful that habit was, and I just stopped. Actually, I’m Catholic, and I gave up soda for Lent. When Easter came, I didn’t miss it and never went back. In those 40 daytimes, my palette was reset. By Easter, I conceived sugary alcohols were disgusting. That Lent ritual, that excuse to try out life without carbonated drink, genuinely cured a lot. Forty daylights seems a pretty good span of time to make a brand-new practice poke. The olds really knew what they were doing.

Would you describe yourself as an Upholder, a Questioner, a Rebel, or an Obliger?

Why do “youre asking” ??? Because I got to sit at the hoof of the employer during our podcast recording recently, I’m pretty sure I’m a Questioner.

Does anything tend to interfere with your ability to keep your health garbs or your happiness?( e.g. traveling, gatherings, email)

I’m pretty intense. That hyper-focus actually facilitates me a great deal when I have to dive late into a topic. But now that I’m too an inventor, I also have to regularly pick my head up and look around to make sure I’m not missing an opportunity. It’s a very hard balancing act.

Have you ever been hit by a lightning bolt, where you made a major change very suddenly, as a consequence of reading a book, a conference with a friend, a milestone birthday, a health scare, etc .?

I’m still waiting for my lightning bolt!

Has a volume ever deepened your life–if so, which one and why?

Definitely. The Road Less Traveled. It was thrust at me by a professor in a doctrine direction during my first semester at my Jesuit university, Fairfield. Made me question everything, including my sect, my Western values, everything. But chiefly it placed me on a life-long journey of self-awareness. It was the right message at the right time for me–the idea that things either evolve or atrophy, and it’s your individual responsibility to make sure which lane your life vanishes. Peck sent me into the self-help section of a bookstore, for better and worse, and I didn’t crawl out for several years! But the idea that the next phase of human evolution might be feeling knowledge or something like that really excited me, and still does.

In your province, is there a common misperception or incorrect assumption that you’d like to correct?

I’ve spent 25 years getting to know computer intruders, and I wish beings recognized how much they do to keep people safe–the course the world is full of unsung protagonists who work as EMTs or wet-nurses or fuel supervisors. The number of near-miss hacking episodes is stunning. So, hug a hacker. Also, in the coming world of robots and AI, I am convinced that exclusively people who “think like a hacker” will thrive.

What does that planned? It wants always looking forward to objections and “edge conditions.” It aims not taking things for granted–always noticing the outlets, physical or symbolic. It signifies avoid similarity, which is the easiest thing to assault. Predominantly, it “means youre” imaginative. It wants determining patterns and crushing them, really to see what happens. Everything humen do that can be automated will soon be of little or no value. Creativity will thrive in the future. Hackers are our most creative thinkers–and they are pretty funny, more!