weekly Go Flip Yourself

“They have to try on every single piece in the store,” Green said. “See where it’s made, what it’s made from, learn why it costs what it costs, the fit, the stitching, the trims, so they can talk about it all.”

That can explain why things always seem bad and why things always seem like they’re getting worse. Which is exactly what we see in the data: every year, people say that humans just aren’t as kind as they used to be, and every year they rate human kindness exactly the same as they did last year.

If I’m right, people’s colorful theories of the End Times come second. What comes first is the conviction that the world’s problems are brand-spanking-new. And that conviction is stunningly consistent across time.

“Happiness is all gone,” says the Prophecy of Neferty, an Egyptian papyrus from roughly 4000 years ago. “Kindness has vanished and rudeness has descended upon everyone,” agrees Dialogue of a Man with His Spirit, written at around the same time. “It is not like last year […] There is no person free from wrong, and everyone alike is doing it,” says the appropriately-named Complaints of Khakheperraseneb from several hundred years later. And some unknown amount of time after that, the Admonitions of Ipuwer reports that actually things just started going to hell. “All is ruin! Indeed, laughter is perished and no longer made.” Worst of all: “Everyone’s hair has fallen out.”

I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things.

• relationship between money and happiness

• how to manage money with your kids

• giving money to either taxes, kids or charities

• tha avalanche story: most important decisions of our lives are tiny, little, snap ones

• deep down: desire and need to impress other people

• respect for my body, respect for my relationships, respect for my family -- i don't wanna be fat, i wanna stay married, i wanna be there for my kids