The most popular course ever at Yale? Surely Political Science, CompSci, Global Affairs, one of those? They are the courses that young, ambitious ivy leaguers need to launch their professional careers, right?
Of all the courses there are out there, there’s one in particular that promises to lay the groundwork for achieving what we all desire: happiness. What use, after all, is a degree in Food Science, a diploma in Business Management, or a certificate in Survival Skills if our underlying ‘operating system’ is broken, preventing us from experiencing pleasure or self-actualisation? Surely there is more to life than the acquisition of skills and the creation of wealth?
Synthesizers have come a long way since the Moog and the Fairlight in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s no longer new to hear samples of raindrops falling into water in music tracks, as it was when Jean-Michel Jarre gave us his groundbreaking soundscapes on the pioneering albums Oxygène and Équinoxe. Synth sounds are so commonplace now that to create new sounds, you need to know a few things about how they work, and learn a bunch of software, to see how you can push the envelope.
Maybe there’s a slight pang of guilt at the clickbaity title, but it got your attention and there are excellent reasons to read on. We’re talking about the links between exercise and feeling good in yourself, otherwise known as mental health. Here’s a course that delves into the exact mechanisms that link exercising to that inner glow.
The Basque country between France and Spain has a proud culinary tradition that has led to the creation in 2011 of the Basque Culinary Center, a university dedicated entirely to food. The Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences at Mondragon University joined with a group of prominent chefs to found the first official university-level training courses in Spain (the Degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts), combined with a Research and Innovation Center in the field of food and gastronomy.
There’s a course on Udemy that might be worth looking into if you’re tired of the 9 to 5 routine and want to see more of the world. It describes how to get paid to travel. They don’t give away the exact details of their method because that would be stupid – they are selling an ‘information product’ in the style of get rich quick schemes, and the only way to get at their secret sauce is to pay for it.
TV game shows love progress bars, don’t they? The contestants and audience hold their breath as blocks light up to create a path towards a prize, or a big thermometer-like thing rises until a desired goal is reached. We seem to be hard-wired to respond to these visualisations of progress, and get a sense of achievement and reward when the goal is reached.
