US Stock-Market disconnect. The Middle East power vacuum. ‘Last-chance’ tourism. Dishabituate to learn to enjoy again. The benefits of not-so ’small’ talk.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Rather than focusing completely on how to better our life we need to also learn how to see our life better—to notice the great things we have habituated to a little bit more.” (Sharot and Sunstein in the article on habituation).

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

Kenneth Rogoff, What’s Behind the US Stock-Market Disconnect?
(Project Syndicate, 4 March 2024)
Food for thought for financial investors. The financial markets almost always discount political and geopolitical risks, but even so: a puzzling disconnect exists today between the surging US stock market and “the sad state of American politics.” It may not last, thinks the Harvard economist. He argues that the US stock market is buoyed by the AI boom; but given the significant challenges and uncertainties facing the American economy, regardless of who occupies the White House in 2025, there is little reason to believe that the current rally will endure (metered paywall that may require prior registration, reads in 4-6 min).
Click here to read the full article

Gregg Carlstrom, The Power Vacuum in the Middle East
(Foreign Affairs, 6 March 2024)
An authoritative account of the situation in the Middle East from the correspondent of The Economist. He explains that the five months of fighting between Israel and Hamas have debunked some big myths: (1) that the Palestinian cause was dead, (2) that an emerging Israeli-Gulf alliance would provide a counterweight against Iran, (3) that a region exhausted by conflict was going to focus on de-escalation and economic growth, and (4) that a truly post-American Middle East had emerged. “Forget talk of unipolarity or multipolarity: the Middle East is nonpolar. In reality, no one is in charge. The US is an uninterested, ineffective hegemon, and its great-power rivals even more so. Fragile Gulf states cannot fill the void; Israel cannot, either; and Iran can only play spoiler and troublemaker” (metered paywall that may require prior registration, reads in 10-13 min).
Click here to read the full article

Paige McClanahan, It Just Got Easier to Visit a Vanishing Glacier. Is That a Good Thing?
(The New York Times, 3 March 2024)
This is about a new cable car in Chamonix, the hometown of the Monthly Barometer. The article touches upon the issues of climate change and tourism by describing the new phenomenon of “last-chance tourists”. People who are visiting the disappearing Mer de Glace in droves realize the extent of the problem, but as they do, they also make the problem worse by accelerating the place’s demise. The question is: can a visit to such a site prompt a change in behavior? (gifted article, reads in 6-8 min).
Click here to read the full article

Tali Sharot and Cass Sunstein, Your Life Is Better Than You Think
(Time, 22 February 2024)
The co-authors of “Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There” discuss how a basic feature of our brain, known as habituation, makes us unable to notice the good things in our lives. Habituation is the tendency of neurons to fire less and less in response to things that are constant. We therefore need to learn to dishabituate to enjoy once again the things that once took our breath away but that have become part of our “life’s furniture”. The cognitive neuroscientist and the legal scholar (known among other things for “Nudge” that he co-wrote with Richard Thaler) explain how to do this (spoiler alert: the key is to take small breaks from our daily life) (metered paywall, reads in 4-5 min).
Click here to read the full article

Allie Volpe, How to master the art of small talk
(VOX, 2 March 2024)
At a time of rising loneliness and polarized discourses, engaging in small talk is an opportunity to build trust, to learn about others, and to become a more curious person – genuinely curious. A casual chat can be the on-ramp to deeper connection, and this article, backed by science, explains how to do it properly; it is a guide to having interesting conversations with strangers. The art of small talk essentially boils down to the following: you must be more interested in the person that you’re talking to than talking about yourself. To be better at small talk, listen, and see it as an opportunity, not an annoyance (free access, reads in 5-6 min).
Click here to read the full article