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BEHAVIOUR

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Choose Who You Spend Time With Carefully. An excerpt from Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. One day in the early 1900s, a prominent American businessman named Claude C.

An excerpt from Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit

Hopkins was approached by an old friend with an amazing new creation: a minty, frothy toothpaste named “Pepsodent” that, he promised, was going to be huge. Hopkins, at the time, was one of the nation's most famous advertising executives. He was the ad man who had convinced Americans to buy Schlitz beer by boasting that the company cleaned their bottles “with live steam” (while neglecting to mention that every other company used the same method). He had seduced millions of women into purchasing Palmolive soap by proclaiming that Cleopatra had washed with it, despite the sputtering protests of outraged historians. What if Introverts Ruled the World? This week's cover story (which is one of my favorites) is not about politics.

What if Introverts Ruled the World?

At least, not directly. But in a political season when we are evaluating candidates in terms of leadership and style, it's worth using the introvert-extrovert framework to look at the campaign. The story, by Bryan Walsh, which draws on research from a new book by Susan Cain called Quiet, suggests that as a society, we have an affinity for extroversion that may not be healthy and a bias against introversion that may not be wise. Leadership styles go in and out of fashion. The more top-down corporate-leadership... Annie Murphy Paul: Your Morning Routine Is Making You Dull.

Brrriiinnng.

Annie Murphy Paul: Your Morning Routine Is Making You Dull

The alarm clock buzzes in another hectic weekday morning. You leap out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with barely a moment to think. A stressful commute gets your blood pressure climbing. Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper, its array of stories ranging from discouraging to depressing to tragic. With a sigh, you pour yourself a cup of coffee and get down to work, ready to do some creative, original problem solving.