Bill Gates – how do you make education better?

Bill Gates, philantropist :)
“A goal I had there was to draw more people in to work on those problems, because I think there are some very important problems that don’t get worked on naturally. That is, the market does not drive the scientists, the communicators, the thinkers, the governments to do the right things. And [...]

The Power of Time Orientation – Philip Zimbardo @ TED

Philip Zimbardo: “Now lets tempt four-year-olds, giving them a treat. They can have one marshmallow now. But if they wait until the experimenter comes back, they can have two. Of course it pays, if you like marshmallows, to wait. What happens is 2/3rds of the kids give in to temptation. They cannot wait. [...]

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

From Positive Psychology News Daily
“Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.”
Margaret Lee Runbeck (1905-1956)
According to the book Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman, the 16 types of enjoyable emotions include

sensory pleasures (

visual pleasure,
tactile pleasure,
olfactory pleasure,
auditory pleasure,
gustatory pleasure),

amusement,
contentment,
excitement,
relief,
wonder,
ecstasy or bliss, [...]

How to be happier

I ask myself, “What are 10 things in my life from the last hour that I can be grateful for?”
I ask myself “What are 10 doable things that I can do in the next hour that I’ll be happy I did?”

Lots of amendmends to make, but you get the spirit. I was at about no. [...]

Jumping over my shadow

Paul Watzlawick about paradox – profound, readable, entertaining, educational, soul healing. Here’s a sample from Oxymoronica, a collection by Marty Grothe (via Cool Tools):
The superfluous is the most necessary.
Voltaire
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Margaret Mead
I shut my eyes in order to see.
Paul Gauguin
We learn from history that we do not [...]

Hellen Keller’s story

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” She said it and she was deaf and blind. See her story here.

A hungarian guy made Mozart-like, prodigy chess players out of his three daughters

Prodigy as in 8th place in the world.
[...] Chess correspondents Malcolm Pein and David Norwood describe her [Judit Polgar] as ‘incredibly personable and nice’ and ‘very sweet, quite fun and not big-headed’. Both men were beaten by her at a time when [...]