Friday Favourites Vol. 2

July 28, 2017 Christopher Wilson

My Mom says I share awesome articles. And she would never lie to me. Here's a roundup of my favourites for the week.

In Defense of Small, Quiet Accomplishments - Looking closer, I found every shiny success came with a critique hidden within it like a shadowy worm burrowed inside delicious fruit. Not good enough, that creature whispered. You could have been bigger and better, looking back on the past twelve months free of regret, happy with all you’ve done.

How cohousing can make us happier (and live longer) - Loneliness doesn't always stem from being alone. For architect Grace Kim, loneliness is a function of how socially connected we feel to the people around us -- and it's often the result of the homes we live in. She shares an age-old antidote to isolation: cohousing, a way of living where people choose to share space with their neighbors, get to know them and look after them. Rethink your home and how you live in it with this eye-opening talk.

The concept I'd like to share with you today is an antidote to isolation. It's not a new concept. In fact, it's an age-old way of living, and it still exists in many non-European cultures around the world. And about 50 years ago, the Danes decided to make up a new name, and since then, tens of thousands of Danish people have been living in this connected way. And it's being pursued more widely around the globe as people are seeking community. This concept is cohousing. Cohousing is an intentional neighborhood where people know each other and looks after one another. In cohousing, you have your own home, but you also share significant spaces, both indoors and out... This community is very intentional about our social interactions. Our nine families have intentionally chosen an alternative way of living. Instead of pursuing the American dream, where we might have been isolated in our single-family homes, we instead chose cohousing, so that we can increase our social connections. And that's how cohousing starts: with a shared intention to live collaboratively. And the intention is the single most important characteristic that differentiates cohousing from any other housing model.

Sham Surgery - The data shows that more than 600,000 people got arthroscopic knee surgery in the US in 2010. It's expensive and painful.

It turns out that sham surgery works just as well. That just about as many people would have found pain relief from this procedure if they had experienced fake surgery instead.

In an extensive study of elective surgeries (asthma, obesity, Parkinson’s disease, acid reflux and back pain) it was found that more than half the time, people would have had at least a good an outcome if they had only experienced fake surgery instead of the real kind.