Daniel H. Pink's Blog, page 23

Pink Travel Tip #9 — A few techniques for avoiding jet lag

It's been awhile since we've done a travel tip — but here's one to help those of you who may be traveling to far flung places this summer: My (almost) foolproof strategy for battling jet lag, including a secret formula for falling asleep on the road.

Pink's Travel Tips — Intro
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #1
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #2
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #3
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #4
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #5
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #6
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #7
Pink's Travel Tips — Tip #8

Quote of the day: The real reason China is laughing at the US

The new edition of Newsweek reports:

"In China there has been widespread education reform to extinguish the drill-and-kill teaching style. Instead, Chinese schools are also adopting a problem-based learning approach.

"[Indiana University professor Jonathan:] Plucker recently toured a number of such schools in Shanghai and Beijing. He was amazed by a boy who, for a class science project, rigged a tracking device for his moped with parts from a cell phone. When faculty of a major Chinese...

Two freebies for Drive readers

Drive is now six months old — and we're off to an outstanding start. To celebrate the success, and to provide ever more good stuff for readers, I'm happy to announce two free — the world's favorite price! — offers for you.

1. Bookplates. We now have custom-made, hand-signed Drive bookplates. They're pretty cool, if I do say so myself.  If you'd like one, just visit our new bookplate page, enter your name and address, and we'll send you one at no charge.

2. Reading list. Daniel Cornwall, a...

Two more books for your summer reading list

Thanks to a short vacation, a brief respite from traveling, and my general inclination to avoid real work, I've been able read a lot the last few weeks. Here are two more books — neither of which has much to do with business, motivation, or talent — that I really enjoyed.

The first is Barbara Demick's book, Nothing to Envy, about day-to-day life in North Korea. It is — in a word — riveting. Demick interviewed about a dozen people who escaped North Korea and she uses their stories to recreate w...

My 5 favorite iPhone apps

One of the strange rituals of life in 2010 is what I call the "Shootout at iPhone Corral." It's the moment in a conversation when two people who aren't normally given to gun-slinging unholster their iPhones for a showdown over who has the coolest apps.

To spare you that encounter, herewith are 5 apps that I find myself using all the time and that I recommend to every dueling partner.

1. Flight Status. If you travel much, you need this app. It's usually more up-to-date than the status boards in ...

Does irrationality have an upside?

One of my favorite books of recent years was Predictably Irrational by Duke behavioral economist Dan Ariely. Now Ariely is back with a new book, The Upside of Irrationality, and it's just as good and, in some ways, even better.

Where the last book focused on how poor reasoning can lead us astray, this one explores dozens of cool experiments that offer some guidance on using our irrational tendencies for our benefit at work and at home. Ariely also threads the book with his own story —...

More emotional intelligence in the subway

Last year, the folks at Volkswagen and Fun Theory devised an engaging (and musical!) way for people to exit a subway station. Now they've come up with a equally engaging way for people to enter a subway station. (Someone should do a story about subterranean behavior modification. There are lots and lots of examples – Ed.)

(HT: Tony Schwartz)

What is the best way to prepare yourself for success?

Should you psych yourself up with confident declarations — or ask yourself questions about whether you're up to the job?

In my latest Sunday Telegraph column, I turn to a team of University of Illinois researchers — and the legendary management theorist Bob the Builder — for the answer.

Quotes of the weekend: Rewards, punishments, baseball, and bullets

From the playing fields of 21st century America to the killing fields of 20th century Europe, here are two interesting perspectives on motivation.

The first comes from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, who's interviewed in the new BusinessWeek and explains why left a job managing the New York Yankees:

"I was offered a very nice contract from the Yankees [after the 2007:] season but it was a reduction in pay. I could get the money back if we won this, that, and the other thing. I was...

A life made by hand

In 2003, my pal Mark Frauenfelder (one of the impresarios behind Boing Boing) and his wife Carla Sinclair — two young parents suffering from dot-com bubble burnout — distilled their frustration into a brief manifesto. They made a vow:

To take more control of our lives;
To cut through the absurd chaos of modern life and find a path that was simple, direct, and clear;
To forge a deeper connection and a more rewarding sense of involvement with the world around us.

With these aspirations buzzing ...