Why Is Humility So Underrated?
Generally we don't equate genius with being humble. If anything, we expect the opposite, and are pleasantly surprised when we find a counterexample. But this presumption is actually relatively modern. Ancient Romans believed that a genius was actually an invisible, divine entity who would assist a person in a creative work. In effect, this view positions a person as an instrument of their work, a... posted on Jun 24, 4777 reads

The Artist Who Gives It All Away
One day, San Francisco artist Jane Baker realized something. Now she operates from a new place -- new, but also very old: "I don't know art history that well, but it is only in the last few hundred years that art has been a commodity. Before that, most artists were doing it out of their love for, frankly, for God or their church. Most of the art that's been made has not been made for money. So I'm... posted on Jun 30, 3009 reads

20 Untranslatable Words From 'Round The World
There are at least 250,000 words in the English language. But to think that English -- or any language -- could hold enough expression to convey the entirety of the human experience is naive. For example, 'Toska,' from Russian, which is a kind of dull ache of the soul. Or 'Mamihlapinatapei,' from Yagan, describing the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate s... posted on Jul 2, 26858 reads

Impossible: Breaking the Four-Minute Mile
In 1954, England's Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile. Today, of course, the it is routine among the top runners, but until Sir Roger (knighted in 1975) accomplished it, it was considered beyond the realm of human possibility -- like climbing Mount Everest or walking on the moon. Bannister though, being a medical student at Oxford at the time, recognized it more of a global, psycho... posted on Jul 11, 3451 reads

Ways to Connect More Deeply
"Make Crows Feet. Use the Right Words. Perfect Your Handshake. Dress for a Tie. Get Close. Don't Impose Your Values. Accept Others. Pursue and Project Your Passions. Find Shared Passions. Default to Yes." In this compelling infographic, former chief evangelist of Apple, Guy Kawasaki, further details his advice for increasing likability. Or put another way, simply connecting more deeply.... posted on Aug 3, 0 reads

The 'Before I Die' Project
Artist Candy Chang had an idea to turn an abandoned property in New Orleans into a sort of collective performance art piece in which all are invited to participate, simply by declaring what is important to them. Participants are invited to complete the sentence "Before I die I want to ..." Chang has provided chalk, a large-scale blackboard, and the necessary permits. A thought-provoking piece of p... posted on Aug 6, 16083 reads

The Horse Whisperer
"Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see," says Buck Brannaman, a cowboy who travels around the U.S. helping horses with "people problems." The documentary film, Buck, follows Brannaman from an abused childhood to an incredibly successful relationship with horses. In the film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges ... posted on Aug 15, 5874 reads

Homeless Kid Wows Korea
At three years old, he was handed off to an orphanage. At five years old, he was living on the streets. At twenty-two years old, he's persevered and pursued his love for the arts, amazing the world with his heartfelt performance on this video of Korea's Got Talent. Meet Choi Sung-Bong, a person who embodies the idea of never giving up. ... posted on Aug 21, 9676 reads

10 Strategies for Reducing Prejudice
UC Berkeley professor Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton provides research-based tips for overcoming prejudices based on differences. Here are his top ten strategies, summarized: Travel (somewhere that challenges your worldview); Take a course on prejudice; If you value egalitarianism, recognize that unconscious bias is no more "the real you" than your conscious values; Laugh a little -- smiles and happiness ... posted on Sep 10, 17627 reads

The Man Who Builds Bridges & Saves Lives
More than 13 years after his parents drowned in a flash flood, David Kakuko is at the Moruny River, building a bridge that might have prevented their deaths. The hanging footbridge will provide safe passage over the Moruny, a frequently flooded waterway in West Pokot, Kenya. "Before the bridge, there [were] so many people, so many who lost their lives," said Kakuko, 32. "I know, because I have no ... posted on Sep 16, 3164 reads

Remembering Steve Jobs' Insights
Steve Jobs, the iconic founder of Apple, died yesterday, and though the world will remember him for his legendary leadership, his creative genius, or his passion for design, he was also a man of inspiring insights. In this powerful 2005 commencement address at Stanford, Jobs shares three personal stories, urging his audience to always "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish." ... posted on Oct 6, 11978 reads

5 Ways of Spending Time -- toward Happiness
Our search to understand what makes us happy goes back centuries. As does our enduring belief that if we just do the right thing, happiness will follow. Researchers at Stanford and UPenn have recently shown how happiness is indeed a consequence of the choices people make. So what can people do to increase their happiness? Their answer is surprisingly simple: spend your time wisely. But some of the... posted on Oct 31, 37515 reads

Why Do A Billion Go Hungry?
In 1971, Frances Moore Lappe wrote a remarkable book that started a movement: "Diet for a Small Planet." Since then, people have been asking her, "Have things gotten better or worse?" She says, both. The number of hungry people has soared to nearly a billion, despite strong harvests; just four companies control three quarters of international grain trade; conditions for farmworkers remain so horr... posted on Nov 1, 12592 reads

Do Trees Talk to Each Other?
Don't trees only talk to each other in the movies? Professor Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia shares her latest research regarding forest ecosystems: amazingly, trees in a forest coexist in a synergistic web of interconnections, with the largest, oldest, "mother trees" serving as hubs. Because of the old trees linked into the network, the underground exchange of nutrients incre... posted on Dec 4, 9302 reads

The Library Rethought
Libraries have a special place in history as a hearth of culture that kindled the greatest feats of science and the grandest works of art. Yet today, they're in danger of being left precisely there -- in history. As our collective use of libraries dwindles in the digital age, five brave efforts are innovating the concept of "the library" in ways that make it as culturally relevant today as it ever... posted on Dec 11, 8736 reads

Language Is More Than Just Words
"We Still Live Here" is a fascinating documentary that tells a life affirming story of cultural revival. It follows the journey of social worker Jessie Little Doe Baird, a member of the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans, who undertook an incredible quest to reclaim the language of her people. In 1993 Jessie began to hear the voices of her ancestors speaking in a language she didn't understand. A... posted on Jan 10, 10662 reads

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2011
What we appreciate, appreciates. That's the way activist Lynne Twist explains a universal phenomenon: that the more we concentrate on something, the more we understand and learn, the more it expands our own boundaries. It also applies to the stories we surround ourselves with. In theory, stories of kindness are happening all the time, but the more we orient ourselves to them, the more we find all ... posted on Jan 1, 7066 reads

Three Parables to Regain Perspective
"If you are like me, sometimes I am so busy trying to catch up, stay even, or take the lead that I lose perspective. When things are going well, I am on top of the world. Yet then when bad luck hits or I see others achieving things I wish I could, I get down on myself. It's at times like these that I refer back to three parables from different cultures that have help me better keep my perspective.... posted on Jan 21, 26049 reads

Road Trip Nation
"I'd feel so much better about the world we live in if being 'passionate' or 'inspired' was a national standard instead of so much of the academic trivia that is mandated," a high school teacher wrote. Working with 11th graders in his capacity as college advisor, he was helping them explore how their own passions could lead to further study and possible career choices. In the process, he introduce... posted on Jan 27, 4634 reads

Lessons from a 7-yr-old's Heartwarming Letter
Sometimes the greatest lessons come unexpectedly, and from the smallest moments. 7-year-old Owen Shure's heart-warming letter to a football player is a perfect example. The Twittersphere buzzed with reactions to the San Francisco 49ers' Kyle Williams fumbling the ball in a tight moment in the playoffs. Some responses were downright vitriolic. But hopefully Kyle also saw this touching story from Be... posted on Jan 31, 22528 reads

Money Can Buy Anything -- Except Meaning
"Money helps you do what you want to do. And what you want to do is something that will bring your life meaning. It helps to accomplish those things. On the other hand, the struggle wakes you up. That's what it's really all about: waking up. The money question: If it serves to wake me up to what I want, what I wish for, what I'm willing to sacrifice for, what I'm not going to compromise for, then ... posted on Feb 7, 27904 reads

A Different Kind of Super Bowl Story
They may be the most amazing story at the Super Bowl, this immigrant father who sought the American dream and the son he can't see play in America's biggest game. That's a small joy most parents take for granted: seeing your child play a game. Watching him grow in sports over the years. Enjoying the best moments as much as he does. But Jean Pierre-Paul is led by the arm down a small hallway of his... posted on Feb 22, 8792 reads

The Power of Introverts
"Do you enjoy having time to yourself, but always feel a little guilty about it? Then Susan Cain's "Quiet: The Power of Introverts" is for you. It's part book, part manifesto. We live in an era that values its extroverts -- the outgoing, the lovers of crowds -- but not the quiet types who change the world. In this engaging interview Cain discusses what it really means to be an introvert, the valu... posted on Mar 6, 21874 reads

The Kindness Boomerang
What goes around comes around. This charming short film depicts the ripple-effect of kind acts -- the way in which receiving an unexpected moment of generosity from a stranger can cause us to become more aware of the needs of those around us and to take action to become a vector of goodness.... posted on Mar 8, 6399 reads

9 year old Autistic Social Entrepreneur
Kent Melville's father was skeptical when his son first said that he wanted to use the profits from his successful summer lemonade stand to start his own soda company. Aaron Melville, who teaches business classes at a local college, did not believe his 9-year-old autistic son was ready to run his own business. He told Kent to wait until he was older. His son's response brought tears to his eyes a... posted on Mar 15, 26978 reads

A Lost 5-yr-old Finds Family 25 Years Later
One day in 1987, 5-year-old Saroo Brierley spent the afternoon begging for change with his brother at a local train station. When it was time to go home, the boys boarded what they thought was the correct train. They were wrong. Exhausted, the young brothers fell asleep, only to wake up 10 hours later on the other side of India, hundreds of miles away from their family. 25 years later, using littl... posted on Mar 17, 17813 reads

How to Make Life a Conscious Practice
When we learn a martial art, or ballet, or gymnastics, or soccer ... we consciously practice movements in a deliberate way, repeatedly. By conscious, repeated practice, we become good at those movements. Our entire lives are like this, but we're often less conscious of the practice. Each day, we repeat movements, thought patterns, ways of interacting with others ... What if we practiced consciousl... posted on Apr 3, 32548 reads

20 Amazing Photos From Outer Space
As humans have begun to explore the mysteries of outer space, both by sending unmanned probes and physically traveling beyond the Earth's atmosphere, a vast number of amazing pictures have been collected. Often photographs of outer space are recorded for the purposes of science, but are also often breathtakingly beautiful images revealing the wonders of the universe. This post brings together 20 o... posted on Jul 6, 0 reads

The Habit of Starting
"The biggest reason people fail at creating and sticking to new habits is that they don't keep doing it. That seems obvious: if you don't keep doing a habit, it won't really become a habit. So what's the solution to this obvious problem? Find a way to keep doing it. When you look at it this way, the key to forming a habit is not how much you do of the habit each day (exercise for 30 minutes, write... posted on Oct 1, 23273 reads

How To Think Like An Ecosystem
"A new way of seeing that is opening up to us can form a more life-serving mental map. I call it "eco-mind"-- looking at the world through the lens of ecology. This worldview recognizes that we, no less than any other organism, live in relation to everything else. As the visionary German physicist Hans-Peter Durr puts it, "There are no parts, only participants." This fascinating article from Yes M... posted on Apr 10, 28373 reads

Wisdom From Alice, Age 108
At age 108, Holocaust survivor Alice Herz Sommer still practices piano for 3 hours every day. At age 104, she had a book written about her life: "A Garden Of Eden In Hell." At age 83, she had cancer. Alice survived the concentration camps through her music, her optimism and her gratitude for the small things that came her way - a smile, a kind word, the sun. When asked about the secret of her long... posted on Apr 6, 15230 reads

Building a 'Muscular Empathy'
"'We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions.' In attempting to empathize, we're actually missing the point if we are judging at all. Because then we are more concerned with being knowledgeable, being right -- or even being good -- than we are with actually feeling another person's reality. But even moral imagination, operating creatively from a place of first putting ... posted on Apr 8, 17213 reads

No Greater Joy: Photos from Around the World
Steve McCurry is an American photojournalist best known for "Afghan Girl" a haunting photograph of his that first appeared in National Geographic. Of his work he says, "Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person's face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landsc... posted on Sep 28, 52504 reads

Journey to the End of the Earth
"I realized quickly, after just having traveled to various villages in rural India, that distance is relative. Hailing from a city like San Francisco, going even a few hours outside of town is far - but twelve hours outside of a major city? I half expected to run into another country. The remote place in mention is Achham, a tiny hillside region in far west Nepal. Sitting like a giant amongst its ... posted on Apr 15, 11000 reads

Celebrating Pay-it-Forward Day
Today, April 26th, is Pay-it-Forward Day, and to get fired up to celebrate it, here are ten great, real-world stories. Each demonstrates a different way of expressing kindness -- anonymously, just because it is in our own true nature.... posted on Apr 26, 4462 reads

The 8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
A few years ago, Geoffrey James interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in an attempt to uncover the secret of their leadership abilities. He learned that the world's most accomplished managers have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics. According to James, the "best of the best" tend to share the following eight core beliefs.... posted on Apr 27, 27269 reads

The Northern Lights in Action
Few things take our breath away so easily, so seamlessly as images of our world -- Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. Sit back for the next two minutes and let the spectacle of our cosmos fill your senses. The deep emotional relationship we feel to our planet is evident.... posted on Apr 28, 8474 reads

A 39-year-long Lesson in Forgiveness
A 12 year-old boy named Larry did something that he realized probably hurt his seventh-grade teacher. Over the decades he searched the internet in an attempt to locate that teacher -- and apologize. His efforts were in vain ... until a few months ago, 39 years after the original event, his search turned up an online article featuring the long lost teacher. Larry shot an immediate email to the new... posted on May 2, 42659 reads

The Art of Motivating Employees
"Could a simple five-minute interaction with another person dramatically increase your weekly productivity? In some employment environments, the answer is yes, according to Wharton management professor Adam Grant. Grant has devoted significant chunks of his professional career to examining what motivates workers in settings that range from call centers and mail-order pharmacies to swimming pool li... posted on May 15, 33353 reads

Small-town Doctor, Big-time Hero
Rushville, Illinois is a small town where sunflowers wave in the wind. One of its claims to fame is Dr. Russell Dohner. A man who has been looking after his neighbors for 55 years, charging them about what we pay for a fancy cup of coffee: five bucks a visit. "In a mercenary world," a waiting patient told me, "this place is an oasis." Dohner will go anywhere, at any time, to help those in need, of... posted on May 11, 27731 reads

A Cab Ride I'll Never Forget
"Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. One night I took a fare at 2:30 AM, when I arrived to collect, the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always w... posted on May 17, 12628 reads

Food. People. Power.
For many years, people living in West Oakland had accepted eating unhealthy food as a way of life. That is, until a small group of people decided to change their community through Mandela MarketPlace, a non-profit that partners with local residents and rural, minority farmers to bring fresh agricultural produce to their local corner stores. Mandela MarketPlace now represents the difference that yo... posted on Jun 28, 2404 reads

The Business 9 Women Kept Secret For 30 Years
"Somewhere in West Tennessee, not far from Graceland, nine women -- or "The 9 Nanas," as they prefer to be called -- gather in the darkness of night. At 4am they begin their daily routine -- a ritual that no one, not even their husbands, knew about for 30 years. Over the next three hours, The 9 Nanas (who all consider themselves sisters, despite what some of their birth certificates say) will whip... posted on Jun 29, 1774283 reads

Google's Jolly Good Fellow on Inner Peace
Chade-Meng Tan (widely known as Meng) was among the earliest engineers to be hired at Google. When Google allowed engineers to spend 20% of their time pursuing their passion, Meng decided to spend his time on a cause dear to his heart: Launching a conspiracy to bring about world peace. Meng believes that world peace can be achieved -- but only if people cultivate the conditions for inner peace wit... posted on Jul 11, 21738 reads

Vanishing Voices: The World's Endangered Languages
"One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favor of English, Mandarin, or Spanish. What is lost when a language goes silent?" This in-depth National Geographic feature probes the beauty, significance, richness and fragility of the world's vanishing tongues.... posted on Jul 13, 5112 reads

Freed: Cat With Head Trapped in Jar for 6 Days
"I feel like I have experienced a truly blessed event. A member of my feral colony, usually one of the friendlier cats, got a plastic jar stuck on his head. His entire head enveloped in hard plastic, he was completely unable to eat or drink. I first saw him this way on a Saturday night. I spent hours trying to get him to trust me to get close enough so that I could remove the jar. But, completely ... posted on Aug 5, 24001 reads

Little Ellie & the Olympian: The Kindest Race Ever
He's a world record holding sprinter from South Africa who is known as "The Fastest Man on No Legs." She's a spunky little girl from Essex, England. In an inspiring series of images that have recently gone viral, the two strangers, united only by a stubborn refusal to let double amputations stop them, race each other in a friendly bionic foot race. The following article shares more about Olympian ... posted on Aug 10, 71111 reads

Inflatable Bag Monster Art
Before seeing the work of street artist Joshua Allen Harris, most people wouldn't have considered the artistic possibilities of subway exhaust. Fortunately, Harris had: using only tape and garbage bags, he creates giant inflatable creatures that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk grate. Check out this amazing short video of what can be done to brighten others' days with a little serendipi... posted on Aug 12, 4569 reads

The Geography of Giving
Ever wonder how charitable the people are who live in your state or community? It turns out that lower-income people tend to donate a much bigger share of their discretionary incomes than wealthier people do. And rich people are more generous when they live among those who aren't so rich. That's according to a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which breaks charitable giving down by ZIP c... posted on Aug 22, 5813 reads

The Power of A Grandmother's Heart
Amid rampant gang violence in a Chicago South Side neighborhood, a grandmother has an open door policy. Diane Latiker, 54, started a nonprofit community with 10 kids in her living room in 2003. The program, Kids Off The Block, has grown to become a successful mentoring site and haven for Chicago's youth, serving 300 kids last year. ... posted on Aug 29, 10737 reads