Mary Martin

Thinking about curiosity as going beyond the need for quick answers also highlights the power of what happens when we engage with un­­cert­ain­ty: having to ponder and anticipate answers can improve learning and memory, and curiosity can facilitate brain states that help us encode new information. Learning new things can be tough, but harnessing... See more

“Can machines be therapists?” is a question receiving increased attention given the relative ease of working with generative artificial intelligence. Although recent (and decades-old) research has found that humans struggle to tell the difference between responses from machines and humans, recent findings suggest that artificial intelligence can... See more

greater inquisitiveness motivated people to slow down, be pa­tient and invest in experiencing the winding path to resolution.

Are you playing on easy mode or hard mode? What can you do to put things on an easier setting? Go back to basics. What’s one thing you can do today that will make tomorrow easier? What can you can do this year that will leave you in a better position for next year?

Is it more important to reform existing social networks or to work to build new ones?

Empathy, or feeling with another, is not the same as compassion, or feeling for another. In empathy, we suffer with the other or share their joy or other emotions—we feel what they feel. Compassion, by comparison, involves care and concern for the person who suffers, and comes with a strong motivation to help and feelings of warmth and love. We... See more

Csikszentmihalyi’s research suggests that flow is conducive to optimal experience . But it doesn’t tell us anything about whether it is conducive to optimal performance . So look for flow when you want to feel better, but not necessarily when you want to do better.