Actually, I had read one book in English, when I was in middle school.But it was forgettable.This time around, I was in a more serious effort to expand my knowledge, as well as a deep curiosity about foreign literature.English opened a window in my mind, especially when I encountered works that were not available in translation at the time. How could these writers produce such works?And how could I write like them? I often made small summaries of these books after I read them.Sometimes I rewrote them in my own language, just to understand the structure and the movement of the stories.But I felt that it was not enough.I really wanted to sit in the chairs of these writers, imagine myself being them, and write the same works word for word.There were only two ways to do it: rewrite them or translate them.

People generally assume that when they consider another person a "friend," that person also thinks of them as a friend, which means friendship is mutual.But when we analyzed self-reported relationship surveys from several experiments around the world, we found that while most people assume friendships are two-way,only about half of friendships are indeed mutual.These findings indicate a profound inability of people to know who their friends are. In itself this may seem like an interesting but minor finding, but this large proportion of unbalanced friendships translates to a major effect on the ability of an individual to persuade others to cooperate or change their behavior. That’s because success depends on the ability to recruit friends to help at critical times.Studies have shown that social influence is a critical factor in organizational change, and especially in the propagation of new behaviors, new ideas, and new methods in both organizations and society.

Imagine for a moment that the future is going to be even more stressful than the present.Maybe you don’t need to imagine this because you probably have believed it.What will you do if your child seems to be overwhelmed by life in the here and now? You may already know that an increasing number of our kids are not all right. In the previous decade, the number of severely depressed teenagers went from 2 million to 3.2 million.Among girls,the rate was even higher; in 2017, one in five reported experiencing major depression.Suicides by children aged 5 to 11 have almost doubled in recent years.Some may say that smartphones and social media are to blame.For instance,kids who are cyber bullied are much more likely to consider suicide, but that can’t explain the distress we see in kids too young to have phones.

When asked what makes you happy, you would probably have no problem providing me with a few answers—a new car, less body fat, a higher-paying job, and so on.They usually have a similar theme;i.e., our happiness depends on external circumstances. You may be surprised to learn that materialistic things rarely determine long-term happiness.That which you have always assumed would make your life much more joyful may not actually improve long-term happiness. Happiness is determined by innate factors and perceptions, as well as experiences. Humans are social animals；we need to socialize.The biggest predictor of happiness is the extent of our social relationships.A primary reason why our brains have evolved in the manner they have is that we can be social. It is not realistic, nor is it desirable to be happy all the time.What is important is learning to appropriately regulate those potentially damaging thoughts.

Anyone who’s ever been with a baby can tell you:if they’re upset about something, they will let you know.Scientists have been aware of this behavior, but what they did not know, until now, is that if babies see someone else being treated unfairly, they expect the leader in that situation to step in and do something about it.Renee Baillargeon is a psychologist at the University of Illinois.Baillargeon says it seems babies are born with these expectations of what a leader is and how they should behave.Alan Fiske studies human relationships at the University of California, Los Angeles.He says many people underestimate what babies are capable of understanding and figuring out about the world, since they’re just barely learning how to walk and talk.It shows that they expect a leader to not just use power for his or her own self-interest but to use their authority to regulate the morality of their followers.

You refresh your social media home page over and over again after posting a status, because you can’t wait to see what your friends think about your witty observation. You can’t wait to see what your friends think, because you desperately want them to approve your actions. We’re all in this when it comes to seeking pleasure instantly. It’s our nature. Approval addiction is the demand for approval. Instant satisfaction is the desire for pleasure without delay. They are intimately connected. When approval addiction and instant satisfaction go together, it’ll be like wanting the pleasure of approval immediately and continuously. Getting instant pleasure may comfort us immediately, but we will be missing things that are actually better in the long-run. Remember, we don’t need to have everything we want right away. We need to learn to slow down and appreciate the wait. "Great things take time" is not just a saying, it does mean something. You have a whole lot more to enjoy in life than checking your social media home page. And there’s a lot of good stuff about yourself than just those "likes" from social media.

Pursuing perfection in your work may seem like a noble pursuit. After all, many would attribute at least part of Steve Jobs’ legacy to his incredible attention to detail and refusal to accept anything short of perfection. Perfectionism may have served Jobs well at times, but for the average professional, a tireless drive for perfection can create significant inefficiencies. Perfection is deceptive. It’s like trying to climb a mountain that has no summit. You never know if you’ve achieved it. The goal is not to deliver something perfect but to deliver something that has impact. Perfectionism creates psychological barriers to getting work done and causes you to spend time on work that has little impact. Perfectionism is not a bad mentality at its core. You likely seek perfection because you want to do great work and have an outsized impact on the world around you. But, don’t let perfection deceive you into making it the primary goal. Instead, ask yourself, "What’s the minimum amount of work I can do to create the greatest impact?" Then you’ll achieve much more than you are today and avoid the psychological burden of pursuing an unattainable goal.

Millennials are exceptional in many ways.They are better educated than their predecessors, more culturally diverse, and more economically active.Yet they face greater difficulties including economic uncertainty and lack of financial planning. Young millennials lack the education in managing finances which is imperative when applying for credit, staying out of debt, long-term wealth creation as well as saving for life’s uncertainties. Even if the amount is small, start saving. Prioritising savings will make you financially disciplined which will in turn instil strong financial habits that can last a lifetime.Here a key tip would be—Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.

To confirm the finding, humanity would need to make yet another trip to Mars. "Getting there and acquiring the final evidence that this is indeed a lake will not be an easy task," scientists said. "It will require flying a robot there which is capable of drilling through 1.5 kilometers (or about 1 mile) of ice, and this will certainly require some technological developments that at the moment are not available." Still, the research marks another chapter in the story of water on Mars, which stretches back billions of years ago, when the planet was still young. Back then, Mars was a watery world. The planet was surrounded by a warm, thick atmosphere. Fluffy clouds hung in the sky, and liquid water pooled on the surface, sloshing around in deep craters that sit empty today. Research suggests that Mars may have had enough water to coat a fifth of the planet.