The thing about meditation is we know it’s good for us, but we convince ourselves we don’t have time for it. Ironically, meditation can help to quieten down the very same stressful thinking that prevents us from doing it: time is in short supply, we have to keep the pedal to the metal all day in order to get anywhere, sitting still for ten minutes a day is a complete waste of time, etc.

How would you respond to the job interview question ‘How many electric kettles are there in New York State?’ It is beneficial to be able to make a procedurally-based, well-informed guess that shows you have the smarts to arrive at a logical approximation. How To Estimate Anything by Management Consultants SAPBRIEF teaches a skill that’s useful in business and life: the art of the informed guess.

Stand-up comedy is an interesting instance of the nature vs. nurture debate. Are good comedians just naturally funny people, or have they painstakingly crafted their acts over hundreds of performances so they can push our laughter buttons and get results?

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, studied philosophy at college. Astute viewers will have noted the many references to philosophy in the show – Homer, for one, is so named as a nod to a great thinker (but he thinks it comes from baseball). Critics have noted for a long time that the show does more than merely play with philosophy. Rather than mentioning clever stuff in passing to show its creator’s erudition, the Simpsons actually does philosophy.