Optimism Is More Than Positive Thinking
Psychologist Elaine Fox believes optimism isn’t a choice, but a habit. She has some advice on how to develop it—because it’s not just good for you, but for everyone else. By Marco Visscher From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 It’s the perfect day for a conversation about optimism. Read More...
True Grid
The solution to our overburdened, outdated power grid? One word: microgrids—localized power networks that are cheaper, cleaner and more reliable. What’s not to like? By Greg Nichols From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 In late 2000 and early 2001, rolling blackouts swept across California. Read More...
Remaking Work
How to find your inner economy in an outer economy that, more than ever, is willing to let you be you. By Valerie Andrews From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 Imagine no more drudgery—just years of doing what you love, stretched out before you. Work is never boring, because it keeps evolving. Read More...
Lessons from the Chinese Warlord
By Rob Hartgers From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, is 2,500 years old, but it’s still one of the most widely read books on strategy and leadership. What makes this work so relevant after all these centuries? And what can we learn from it? Henry Kissinger recommended Read More...
Alkaline Water: The Mystery Unraveled
It’s been known for decades that alkaline water has many health benefits. But scientists have long wondered why. Now they know: it’s the hydrogen gas dissolved in the water that acts as a very powerful antioxidant. There’s no one medicine that fits every disease. But there is one that comes Read More...
When the Players call the Fouls
Does self-refereeing work in sports? It does in Ultimate Frisbee, where the players call their own game. “The authority of a man with a whistle disempowers the players.” In the searing heat of the Dubai high noon, the Dutch team is playing against the Philippines in the last pool-play match of Read More...
A Better Science of Happiness
Happiness studies can point the way to ever-higher levels of well-being and inspire politicians to design wiser policies. We visit two pioneering researchers in Spain. Carmelo Vázquez receives his apologetic foreign visitor with open arms and a broad smile. He’s not one to get grumpy just Read More...
Freedom Warrior
Rickard Falkvinge is in love with the Internet and will do anything he can to protect it. And we should be doing the same. Because “the Internet was built to connect people, and that creates the most beautiful opportunities.” No other ship of war ever knew as ignoble an end as the Vasa, and yet Read More...
Bacteria for Life
Bacteria cause decay and disease, but they’re also the key to a long and healthy life. A fierce wind is blowing over the wide-open fields of Midwoud, a village of farmers and agrarians an hour’s drive north of Amsterdam. Midwoud is home to organic farm De Anna Hoeve, where the Blokker family Read More...
Ode to Jetara Séhart
Dances with Horses Wild horses galloping through the vast expanses of the American landscape make for a powerful and iconic metaphor for freedom. For more than four years, visual artist and dancer Jetara Séhart has joined the ranks of wild horse activists, devoting her life to educating the public Read More...