The IFOD
The Interesting Fact of the Day Blog
How to Do Nothing (Productively)
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. -Marthe Troly-Curtin Being busy can feed on itself until we feel guilty if we aren't being productive -- it can be like a drug that we're addicted to. Then, exhausted, we watch TV or scroll through social media. Not a great...
How To Master Your Goals: The Power of Rigid Planning Over Flexible Ambitions
Self-help books about developing better habits are all the rage. Some of the best ones are Atomic Habits by James Clear, How to Change by Katie Milkman and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. These books are chock full of great advice about how to develop better...
What’s Your Positivity Ratio?
The age-old adage, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all," is something we learn as children. While it's not a universal rule -- sometimes saying not nice things is necessary -- research on "positivity ratios" confirms there is truth to...
Turn in Those Rebate Forms!
Menards, the big-box home improvement store, advertises that everything in the store is 11% off. That sounds great! Who doesn't want to save 11%? The problem is that in order to enjoy the discount, you have to fill out a rebate form by hand and snail mail it with the...
The Anna Karenina Principle
Leo Tolstoy's 800-page masterpiece Anna Karenina opens with one of the most famous first lines in history: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. -Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina What Tolstoy means is that happy families share a...
How Often Do Passengers Die on Airplane Flights?
My wife, Tammy, was flying from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles this week after dropping my daughter off to study aboard at the University of Tasmania when a passenger two rows in front of her died. The decedent's wife told the flight attendants that he had taken...
Why Tipping Has Gotten Out of Control And What To Do About It
Tip someone who lets you pet their dog? LOL. This is a funny meme, but it captures how tipping expectations have changed I ordered takeout the other day from a restaurant's website. As I was checking out, I was prompted to leave a gratuity. I wasn't going to be waited...
Can You Have Too Much Free Time?
Do you feel like you don't have enough time in the day? Does your lack of time to get everything done leave you feeling stressed? If so, you're not alone, as about 70% of wage earners say they "don’t have enough time to be with their children, their spouses, or to...
My EV Experience at the One-Year Mark
Mr. Freeze One year ago, I bought a 2022 BMW i4 M50, which I've named "Mr. Freeze" (more on the name below). Over the past year, I've driven Mr. Freeze 6,519 miles with my longest trip being about 150 miles. Here's my perspective on owning an EV for the past year....
Why Aren’t Planes Getting Any Faster?
A TWA Boeing 707 Consider these two facts: In 1957, the first Boeing 707 took flight. It had a cruising speed of 600 mph (Mach 0.78). In 2009, Boeing unveiled its 787 Dreamliner. It has a cruising speed of 650 mph (Mach 0.85). Wow, two planes released by the same...
From Me to We: The Evolution of Success in Sports and Business
Michael Jordan Passing Individual Focus vs. Team Focus in Sports At a conference a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing a sports psychologist speak about his experience of playing Premier League football (soccer). In telling how his career progressed from...
We Can Tell A Person’s Social Class From Their Face
During the season 4 premiere of the HBO show Succession, Cousin Greg's date to Logan Roy's birthday party arrives carrying a Burberry tote bag that retails for about $3,000. To a family of Billionaires, counterintuitively the bag signaled she was of a lower social...

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jjennings[at]Stlouistrust.com