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American Wealth Gone Wild: A Blistering Takedown of Greedy Kardashian Culture

In Generation Wealth, Lauren Greenfield’s latest, the documentarian and photographer behind 2012’s award-winning Queen of Versailles lets her ambition run wild.

In many ways, Wealth is a natural extension of Versailles, a cautionary tale about one family’s efforts to build the largest home in America. This newest documentary widens the scope, taking on a world made sick with overconsumption—but that’s an oversimplification given how much Greenfield takes on in this 106-minute manifesto and career retrospective. The film is, at once, a look back on 25 years’ worth of Greenfield’s work, a deep dive into the lives of her subjects, captured over decades, and a meditation on consumerism, Kardashian culture, and the rise and fall of the American empire.

American Wealth Gone Wild: A Blistering Takedown of Greedy Kardashian Culture

What sugar does to your brain – Why sugar could be to blame for your bad memory – and can it get you hooked?

To tell the story of what sugar does to your brain, you have to start with the thought that triggers your need for a hit of sweetness.

It often happens in the afternoon when your brain, which runs on sugar, starts to get hungry.

To satiate the craving your brain activates a string of neurons, often referred to as the reward pathway, which pump the chemical dopamine into your brain.

All of a sudden you need a chocolate bar or that sweet pastry you saw at lunchtime.

If you act on that craving, the reward pathway then switches mode, pumping chemicals such as beta-endorphins into your brain, generating feelings of pleasure.

Your brain thanks you for the sugar hit by making the chocolate bar literally taste sweeter, says Dr Zane Andrews, a scientist at Monash University who studies how our brains regulate control of our diets.

But if you respond to the brain’s need for sugar too often, the reward pathway can develop tolerance to the stimulus.

“That means we need to eat more to get the same feeling. That’s a classic feature of addiction,” says Dr Andrews.

What sugar does to your brain – Why sugar could be to blame for your bad memory – and can it get you hooked?

This 100-Year-Old To-Do List Method Promises Maximum Productivity | Real Simple

It’s called the Ivy Lee Method.

When you’re writing your to-do list, it’s tempting to write down all the tasks you might possibly get done the following day. But where do you even begin when your list seems to be getting longer by the minute? Those out-of-reach tasks might actually be the one thing that’s stopping you from achieving your maximum productivity. The good news? There’s a solution that’s been around for more than 100 years.

The easy trick? Keep your to-do list down to a clutter-free minimum that revolves around your priorities. Your tasks for the next day should hover around six items at most, according to James Clear, a performance improvement writer. Clear recently wrote a post about the method on his website, JamesClear.com. This efficient to-do list is known as the Ivy Lee method. It’s based on the style used by the eponymous public relations executive best known for his work with the Rockefeller family in the early 20th century. Creating your to-do list in this style should only take about 15 minutes each night, but will save you so much more time the following day.

This 100-Year-Old To-Do List Method Promises Maximum Productivity | Real Simple

Playing Tetris can reduce the onset of PTSD after trauma, study shows – CNN.com

After experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, such as a car accident, people are likely to develop anxiety or distress in relation to that event soon after the experience, leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

But a new study has shown that playing the computer game Tetris within hours of experiencing trauma can prevent those feelings from taking over your mind.
PTSD occurs when intrusive memories linked to fear from a traumatic event become consolidated in a person’s mind by them visualizing the event in a loop until it becomes locked in their brain.
Competing with the visualization, such as with a game like Tetris, can block that consolidation form happening.

Playing Tetris can reduce the onset of PTSD after trauma, study shows – CNN.com

The Psychological Research That Helps Explain The Election

At the end of most years, I’m typically asked to write about the best psychology papers of the past twelve months. This year, though, is not your typical year. And so, instead of the usual “best of,” I’ve decided to create a list of classic psychology papers and findings that can explain not just the rise of Donald Trump in the U.S. but also the rising polarization and extremism that seem to have permeated the world. To do this, I solicited the opinion of many leading psychologists, asking them to nominate a paper or two, with a brief explanation for their choice. (Then I nominated some stories myself.) And so, as 2016 draws to a close, here’s a partial collection of the insights that psychology can bring to bear on what the year has brought about, arranged in chronological order.

New Yorker

I met Elon Musk when we were teenagers. Here’s what he showed me about the insane demands of success.

Extreme entrepreneurial success results from an extreme personality and comes at the cost of many other things. I learned this by witnessing the ascent of Elon Musk, from the time we met in college in our late teens to the end of our eight-year marriage.

Vox

October 30, 2011

John Rosemond: Don’t go behind husband’s back on dating

Question: My husband won’t allow our 17-year-old daughter to date. She is an excellent student, very involved in activities at school and church, and has never given us any major problems. A rather brave boy has tried repeatedly to ask my husband to date our daughter, but my husband won’t even give him the time of day, despite the fact that he’s a good kid from a good home. We know his family, and it’s become embarrassing for all of us, except my husband. He refuses to even discuss it. The whole situation is making me feel like I’m watching “Romeo and Juliet.” Everyone who is familiar with the situation, including my relatives, tells me I should ignore my husband and allow my daughter and this boy to date. Please help me. What should I do?

Answer: Under no circumstances would I advise you to ignore your husband and go against his wishes, no matter how irrational his position concerning your daughter and boys. And while I’m reasonably sure he is not generally an irrational person, the fact that he won’t engage in discussion and bend even a tad concerning his stand on your daughter and dating means he can’t defend it; therefore, it’s irrational (a decision or position that is driven or determined primarily by emotion and which is not supported by objective evidence). Nonetheless, your marriage is more important than this issue. Keep that in mind.

Being a father, I would bet that your husband is genuinely concerned for your daughter’s well-being. Fathers can and should be protective of their daughters, but your husband’s protective instincts have gotten the best of him here. His anxieties (I’m making an educated assumption here) have overwhelmed his good sense and he is in danger of becoming his own worst enemy.

This has the potential of resulting in your daughter (a) engaging in deception in order to be with this boy, (b) leaving home when she’s 18, (c) entering into an early marriage that has a large chance of failing, (d) harboring long-standing feelings of resentment toward her father, or (e) all of the above. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard about a female child who was overprotected at home and became “wild” once she went off to college.

If your husband allowed these two young people to date, they would have no reason to be deceptive or to turn this into a soap opera. He’s actually giving them a reason to do what he probably fears most, and the consequences could be very unwelcome to both families.

Having said all that, it doesn’t sound like your husband is going to come to his senses any time soon, no matter what anyone says to him.

I certainly don’t know any magical words that would cause him to revisit his thinking on this matter, much less change his mind. This is one of those times, therefore, when I must regretfully tell someone that “I think you’re just going to have to muddle through this.”

Family psychologist John Rosemond can be reached at www.rosemond.com.