One of the biggest shifts in mindset around inheritance is that most Americans now favor the idea of “giving while living.” Two-thirds say they prefer to distribute part of their estate, 30% on average, while still alive (Figure 5) . That provides both a means of directing the distribution and the opportunity to see the inheritance benefiting the n... See more

To come up with new ideas, you have to have space to be messy, to procrastinate, and to let your mind wander and free-associate. But there needs to be a balance. You eventually need to channel it into something concrete, or you won’t produce anything.

Respondents say that those documents need to be updated throughout their lives as circumstances and preferences change (93%) and that having open conversations in advance about end of life can alleviate suffering for the dying and their families (91%). They also recognize the benefits of having affairs in order, most importantly to relieve the burd... See more

Smart people are a dime a dozen and often don’t amount to much. What counts is being creative and imaginative.

The high centrality participants, Sievers and his coauthors wrote, were much more “likely to adapt their own brain activity to the group,” and “played an outsized role in creating group alignment by facilitating conversation.” But they didn’t merely mirror others—rather, they gently led people, nudging them to hear one another, or to explain themse... See more

I have suggested that women look at men this way: if they took away their own network of intimate friends, those with whom they share their personal journey, removed their sense of instinctual guidance, concluded that they were almost wholly alone in the world, and understood that they would be defined only by standards of productivity external to ... See more