Children must be leashed—Billionaires are welcome

When you work in the luxury furniture business and meet clients on a daily basis, you experience a lot. But sometimes you experience a bit too much. For example, you witness a lot of couples arguing and calling each other names—and I don’t mean nice ones. And you witness a lot of couples making up and again calling each other names—now I mean the nice ones! Also, you have to deal with people who have absolutely no idea about how much, or little, 10sq m are but still, they expect you to turn their kitchen the size of a broom closet into a cuisine that would befit the White House. So in short, what you’ve got to put up with is a huge variety of personalities. But sometimes clients fit into two main stereotypes.

Procrastinate now - Panic later!

At the beginning of June many students realise that exam week is right around the corner. The printer is buzzing with buttloads of documents that need to be printed off and the course folders are slowly becoming fuller and fuller. But sometimes it seems that the more work you have to master, the more you put it off. Highly common among students, this phenomenon is termed procrastination. Whereas continuous procrastination might result in a psychological disorder, I am only going to outline the most common procrastination strategies that all students are familiar with.

Better, faster, stronger

Articles about doping have been in the news for years. Runners take drugs to become faster, cyclists to increase their endurance and bodybuilders to become even more powerful. We’ve heard it all. But the latest news about doping is different, surprising and shocking at the same time. Apparently, doping is not just used to enhance physical power and stamina anymore but also to increase cognitive capabilities. The latest followers of this trend: children. 

Stay disciplined!

Can you remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to do this and to keep your hands from that? It might have gone something like, “We are about to have dinner so don’t eat that brownie now!” or “Don’t touch that! It’s antique!” You probably heard a lot of these kinds of things, didn’t you? And can you remember whether you did what you were told? Well, you better start thinking about it because it might give you some serious information about your life!

If you were obedient, you are probably pretty successful right now. You did great in school, you never had problems with drugs or alcohol and you didn’t have an acting-out phase in your teenage years, right? At least according to psychologist Terrie Moffitt of Duke University in North Carolina, that’s what your life is supposed to be like. Based on a study by Walter Mischel from the late 1960’s, a research team around Moffitt wanted to find out whether there is a correlation between success in life and self-discipline or willpower. In order to find out, they tested 1000 children from New Zealand over a span of about 30 years and an additional 500 British children aged 4 to 12.

SlimSmoke

 “If I quit smoking, I’ll gain weight. So I’d rather have a smoke or two per day.” This is a statement heard frequently by people looking for excuses to keep smoking. Not wanting to gain weight is a fine reason to continue smoking – especially for women. But is it possible that they really have a point here?

According to a study by Marina Picciotto from Yale University they actually do. Her research team found out that the substance nicotine docks onto neuronal receptors in the brain which then send a message to the body that it has had enough to eat and can stop asking for food.