The subscription service is Amazon’s greatest — and most terrifying — invention — By Ellen Cushing Today is Prime Day. Imagine trying to explain that to an alien or to a time traveler from the 20th century. “Amazon turned 20 and on the eve of its birthday, the company introduced Prime Day, a global shopping event,” reads Amazon’s formal telling of the ritual’s…

The rejuvenating power of feeling like a visitor — Rejuvenation. That’s what a friend recently told me she needed. She’d written a book that was published in October, right before the election, but she’d felt too exhausted to publicize it. Not that it would have mattered anyway. The world was shouty and stressed. Now, with vaccines and tulips all…

The world’s psychological immune system turned out to be more robust than expected — By Lara Aknin, Jamil Zaki, and Elizabeth Dunn You’ve probably heard that the coronavirus pandemic triggered a worldwide mental-health crisis. This narrative took hold almost as quickly as the virus itself. In the spring of 2020, article after article — even an op-ed by one of us — warned of…

The best response on Reddit is the very first thing that comes to mind. — It’s well-known that the first rule of the internet is never read the comments. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of it as a hard, fast rule, but that’s because I have a bit of a bias. I used to be a commenter! In fact, I got my earliest writing…

But seriously, they should just empty the dishwasher every now and then — I think things are fairly equal in my marriage. I make most of the money. My husband does almost all of the cooking and more of the daily child care than I do. I run admin. He deals with lawn and car things. The rest we tag-team in a haphazard…

Marketers spent the last decade trying to turn mundane transactions into emotional joyrides. They failed. — Remember those March 2020 pandemic emails? Probably not. Because every company said the same damn thing: A message to our customers about Covid-19 A message from Namecheap’s CEO A message from AIR MILES regarding Covid-19 Meanwhile, every TV commercial used the same box of magnetic poetry: During these unprecedented times…