Put that in your book

As you'll no doubt remember from episode #351, 😆 one of my favorite psychological biases is naive realism, which one of my favorite behavioral scientists/social psychologists Nick Epley defined in his excellent book Mindwise (2014) as "the intuitive sense that we see the world out there as it actually is, rather than as it appears from our own perspective." This leads to frequent misunderstandings with colleagues and loved ones, who suffer from the same bias in seeing things from their own perspectives. 

 

I was thrilled to discover an entire episode of the Choiceology behavioral economics podcast — "The Reality Trap" — on naive realism. In that episode, the host, Katy Milkman, a Wharton professor and former president of the International Society for Judgment and Decision Making, interviewed Julia Minson, a public policy professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Minson offered her own definition of naive realism: "the belief that most of us walk around with most of the time that our perceptions of the world and our reactions to the things we observe are reasonable and objective and basically unbiased. I see the world as it really is." When Milkman asked Minson what her research on naive realism has led her to do differently in her work or in her life, the following is what Minson offered as professional and marital advice, and I BEG YOU to actually play the clip, which is only 30 seconds long, so I can't be accused of having made this up:

  

Now that you've heard it for yourself, I'll repeat what Minson said, because I cannot understate my joy at conveying this nugget of wisdom:

When you disagree with a smart person, you are wrong 50% of the time. That's just a very good heuristic to remember. Half the time you are the one who's wrong. You would do well to remember that, especially in ... marital arguments. 

I know everyone won't believe this, but it makes my heart sing anyway.

 

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The dream realized

Bodo's # 1

 

Picking up bagels for the family brunch on Brad's 25th birthday

 

 

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Episode # 483: Food of love

Remember back in the day when Emeril Live was on every evening at 8:00 on the Food Network? Back then, there weren't many other options available for cooking shows, so I watched fairly regularly. He had all sorts of catchphrases — "Bam!" being the most famous — but I always liked when he said something was so good you could put it on a bumper and it would taste good.

 

Another thing that stuck with me was Emeril referring to something as a "food of love thing." I think most of the time he was talking about some kind of comfort food, like Uncle Clint's Mac & Cheese from episode #1 of UaKS, which was posted exactly 10 years ago today, and the Baked Ziti "welcome food" from episode #57 that I make every time one of you shows up here for dinner after a long trip, just like Grandma Pina used to make for our family. 

 

But I think it can also refer to any food, simple to fancy and everything in between, that you make with love and attention and the intention of nourishing the family and/or friends you're serving it to, hopefully accompanied by lively, interesting conversation. Like Emeril said, "Anything made with love, bam! – it's a beautiful meal."

 

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Cookies as endurance fuel?

Skratch Labs is one of the many players vying for a piece of the endurance food (fuel, hydration, and recovery) market. SL's selling point is "simple, real ingredients that fuel big efforts, go down easy, and help you bust your butt, not your gut." I can attest that the energy bars have a good texture and are very tasty and full of righteous carbs.

 

After trying the energy bars, I tooled around SL's website looking for some recipes. I happily discovered this post with the Skratch Labs Cookie Mix Recipe. It turns out SL used to sell a Cookie Mix, but when they retired it, they went ahead and shared the recipe on their website. Why did an endurance food company sell a cookie mix? They explain that:

During the 2014 Tour of California, Skratch Labs was on Human Support duty for riders and staff. After getting served cookies for dessert one night, riders started asking for cookies during the race. That unlikely request sparked an idea: could a cookie actually be legitimate fuel?

Turns out, yes. The Cookie Mix was born.

Misophonia revisited

I first discovered there is a scientific explanation for the irritation I feel when I hear certain sounds back in 2017 when Cassie sent me a Science News article entitled "If chewing sounds irk you, blame your brain." This came up again in a very good science fiction novel I just finished, Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino. 

 

The protagonist, Adina, is an alien life form sent to Earth to "take notes" on human beings (which, in a nice touch, she sends home using a fax machine) to see if her species can move here from their dying planet. Like me, Adina has a problem with various sounds. For example, she doesn't like going to the movies because the sound of all that popcorn chewing is cacophonous to her. She thinks it has to do with being an alien, until, after about 40 years on Earth, she visits a doctor to have her hearing checked. The doctor tells Adina

there’s a word for her aversion to sound. Misophonia. That the condition had been maligned for many years but has recently become slightly less maligned. “People report feeling rage when their loved ones clear their throats or eat. The clicking of a pen can launch them into fits of impassioned yelling. Some have berated strangers.”

Throat clearing, eating, pen clicking.

 

Check, check, and check on my list.

 

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Twenty years too late

Remember when Mom used to roll out that chart of y'all's chores for the week, and you used to moan and groan about it? Well, there's scientific proof that she was doing you ingrates a favor, even if it did come 20 years too late. 

 

For example, three doctors [1] from the University of Virginia Children's Hospital (Go Hoos!) analyzed data from almost 10,000 children entering kindergarten in 2010 to 2011. The kids' parents reported how often their children did chores. When the kids were in the third grade, they responded to a questionnaire regarding their perceived interest or competence in academics, peer relationships, prosocial behavior, and life satisfaction. They also completed direct academic assessments for reading, math, and science. The doctors analyzed the data and found, among other things, that "[t]he frequency of chores in kindergarten was positively associated with a child's perception of social, academic, and life satisfaction competencies in the third grade, independent of sex, family income, and parent education," and that "[p]erforming chores with any frequency in kindergarten was associated with improved math scores in the third grade." This led the UVA docs to conclude that "performing chores in early elementary school was associated with later development of self-competence, prosocial behavior, and self-efficacy."

 

My fig crop, episode V

Our fig tree is outdoing itself this year. We are picking pounds of figs every day, many of them right from the deck because the tree has grown so tall.

Which leads to the inevitable issue of what to do with all of these figs, other than just eating them by the bowlful. 

 

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