Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

You must read this: Decision Fatigue

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all

This shocked me: A scientific study showed that prisoners were far
more likely to be granted parole if the reviewing judge had just eaten
a nice, healthy snack.

Why? They had more energy and they needed energy (blood glucose) to
make the hard decisions, if they hadn't eaten for a while, they lacked
the energy to make the decision and so they did the equivalent of
making no decision at all - sticking with the status quo. Justice is
fair? Not if your judge is hungry.

It's a long article, but very important for everyone.

4 hour work week

The 4 hour work week audiobook is 13.5 hours long.
That seems wrong.
Somehow.

Silver clouds

A friend had to use his house insurance recently.  His house got flooded and he and his family have gone through a very tough 9 months.

But the good news is this: I am insured with the same company as he is (Direct Line); I read Direct Line's emergency number to him, from their invoice, when the disaster happened; I saw how much insurance he paid; it was 2/3rds what I pay and his house is 200m away from mine and bigger.

So last week while I was in the midst of my own disaster (acute neck and shoulder pain which put me off work for the last 3 weeks) and received a renewal notice for my house insurance.  

I called the insurance company and asked them why he paid so much less.

Two minutes later they reduced my annual cost by £275.66.

Which, coincidentally, was 64 pence more than I'd just had to pay for a new ergonimic chair.

I'm sitting in that chair right now and it's the first time I've been able to type comfortably in a month.

New Chip and Dan Heath book out in a couple of days

http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Garage-ebook/dp/B0061UC83A/ref=zg_bs_154821011_4

I can't wait.  

It's currently free on Kindle.  It ships on the 8th of November.