EDITION 763
29 APRIL 2019
As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.
- How to buy happiness. Money has little effect on happiness. Epicurus said it and modern empirical psychology confirms it. So why do we have so much trouble accepting this? One reason is that the fact that money doesn’t buy us happiness clashes with the obvious fact that it can do. We just tend to spend poorly. Here are five ways of turning cash into smiles. [MORE]
- More than half of Brits now think EU poll was a bad idea. More than half the public – 55% – now think it would have been better never to have held the EU referendum. Some 72% of Labour voters believe it would have been better never to have had the poll. More Tory voters (49%) now think the referendum was a bad idea than believe it was the right thing to have done (43%). The Observer
- Microsoft joins the $1 trillion club. Microsoft reached the club temporarily last week when shares of the company’s stock traded above the $130.50 mark, surging to as high as $131.37. Based on the company’s 7.663 billion outstanding shares, Microsoft had a $1 trillion valuation. The previous two companies to reach $1 trillion valuations were Apple and Amazon, both of which reached the figure last year before dipping below the figure as technology stocks dropped. The Times
- A quarter of British adults have lied about their personal finances. The poll found that despite 60% believing it is important to know your partner’s financial status before committing to them, 11% lied about their debt and 23% misled their partner about money in general leading to 37% having fights about finances. The study, commissioned by Lloyds Bank, also found 14% lied about the amount spent on a single item. The Independent
- A simple thank you can go a very long way. A study of a group of nurses – a profession known for its high burnout rate – showed that being thanked more often resulted in improved physical and mental health, including better sleep, fewer headaches and even healthier eating. Gratitude can boost job satisfaction, which in turn encourages people to take better care of themselves. When employers create opportunities for workers to express gratitude, it can also improve worker retention and lead to a decline in sick days. Metro
- Mental health and ill-health in doctors. 28% of doctors and medical students under 25 have been diagnosed with a mental health condition in the past year, as have 22% of those aged 25 to 34. 38% of male doctors and students, and 28% of female ones, say they self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. The Times
- As much as 15% of the 2018 gender pay gap data could be incorrect. This is following hundreds of companies failing to correctly calculate the median or pay quartiles, according to analysis. Nearly 600 companies almost certainly made mistakes, while an additional 1,000 reports were flagged as suspicious. Pub retailer Greene King wrongly claimed that women made up the majority of its highest-paid staff. Official figures found roughly eight in 10 UK firms paid men more than women in 2018. Personnel Today
- Researchers find sleep heals self-esteem. Researchers in Holland have found that a good night’s sleep helps us to overcome embarrassing experiences, by rationalising them and moving on. By contrast, people with insomnia wake in the same state of low self-esteem, which in turn makes it harder to sleep the following night, according to the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. The Observer
- Two degrees now needed to get higher wages. Young graduates now need two degrees if they want to see a significant advantage in earnings over those who do not undergo tertiary education, new figures from the Department of Education suggest. Up to the age of 30, postgraduates typically earn £9,000, or about 40%, more per year than those without any degree – compared with a £4,500 gap between those with an undergraduate degree and non-graduates. BBC
- The bottom line. Using ‘123456’ as your password? The easy-to-guess password has topped a list of the most widely used passwords on breached accounts, according to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. Evening Standard
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