The Tremendous 10 link roundup, #266

The blog took the summer off but we’re back with good reads on curiosity, creativity, downtime, thinking & fatigue, and a perspective on the never-ending pursuit of growth.

1. Doing Absolutely Nothing Has Mental Health Benefits | “A Personal Perspective: This counterintuitive process is rejuvenating.”
2. Why thinking hard makes us feel tired | “Difficult tasks can lead to build-up of a signalling molecule in the brain, triggering fatigue.”
3. New psychology research reveals a dark side of curiosity | “The new research, which appears in the Journal of Research in Personality, distinguishes between interest curiosity and deprivation curiosity. Interest curiosity refers to the general motivation to learn new things and the joy of exploring, while deprivation curiosity refers to the desire to reduce the unpleasant feelings associated with uncertainty.”
4. 5 Fears That Creatives Must Overcome | “In my work with creatives over the years, I’ve noticed that there are many things that most creatives have in common. Most of them appreciate art and beauty, most of them are passionate about what they create, most of them want to make the world a better place. But there’s another thing they share, too: they all have a lot of fears they need to overcome.”
5. The Importance of Creativity in the Workplace | “The cornerstones of productivity are staying organized, mission-driven, and efficient. But, staying creative shouldn’t come at the expense of those pillars. On the contrary, creativity is becoming an increasingly valuable asset in the workplace for both individuals and teams.”
6. When did humans start making art and were Neanderthals artists too? | “On a visit to see ancient cave art in Spain, Michael Marshall explores why it’s so hard to calculate the age of early human artworks and whether other hominins might also have created art.”
7. Nobody wants to be in the office on Fridays | “Employers are still divided on how to deal with this new reality, where just 30 percent of office workers swipe in on the last day of the workweek.”
8. Why this company ditched its 4-day workweek | “At the end of the four-day workweek trial, they found that employee satisfaction had actually gone down. Here’s why it didn’t work out.”
9. It’s possible to be a journalist and a human | “The way journalists are told to perform objectivity is outdated. If we want to preserve public trust, the best thing we can do is tell the truth.”
10. This Pioneering Economist Says Our Obsession With Growth Must End | “Growth is the be-all and end-all of mainstream economic and political thinking. Without a continually rising G.D.P., we’re told, we risk social instability, declining standards of living and pretty much any hope of progress. But what about the counterintuitive possibility that our current pursuit of growth, rabid as it is and causing such great ecological harm, might be incurring more costs than gains?”

Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash.