Tim Cook lays out what he looks for in an Apple employee | Why You Should Work Less and Spend More Time on Hobbies | The Glossary of Happiness | How to Make Any Business Trip Less Boring

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� � � � � � You Might Like � � � � � � � � � Tim Cook lays out what he looks for in an Apple employee - Fortune    Apple might refer to some of its staff as “geniuses,” but a super high IQ isn’t a prerequisite to land a job at the company. For its CEO at least, there are more important qualities to look for in candidates seeking to join the team. Tim Cook sat down with artist Dua Lipa for a wide-ranging interview released at the weekend, during which he revealed the sort of people Apple tries to hire. Continued here Why You Should Work Less and Spend More Time on Hobbies - Harvard Business Review    As professionals around the world feel increasingly pressed for time, they’re giving up on things that matter to them. A recent HBR article noted that in surveys, most people “could name several activities, such as pursuing a hobby, that they’d like to have time for.” This is more significant than it may sound, because it isn’t just individuals who are missing out. When people don’t have time for hobbies, businesses pay a price. Hobbies can make employees substantially better at their jobs for three reasons: they reawaken your creativity, give you a fresh perspective, and bolster your confidence. As professionals around the world feel increasingly pressed for time, they’re giving up on things that matter to them. A recent HBR article noted that in surveys, most people “could name several activities, such as pursuing a hobby, that they’d like to have time for.” Continued here Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium The Glossary of Happiness - The New Yorker    Last summer, Tim Lomas flew from London to Orlando to attend the fourth annual congress of the International Positive Psychology Association—held, naturally, at Walt Disney World. As Lomas wandered around the event, popping in and out of various sessions, he stumbled upon a presentation by Emilia Lahti, a doctoral student at Aalto University, in Helsinki. Lahti was giving a talk on sisu, a Finnish word for the psychological strength that allows a person to overcome extraordinary challenges. Sisu is similar to what an American might call perseverance, or the trendier concept of grit, but it has no real equivalent in English. It connotes both determination and bravery, a willingness to act even when the reward seems out of reach. Lomas had never heard the word before, and he listened with fascination as Lahti discussed it. “She suggested that this has been really valued and valorized by the Finns, and it was an important part of their culture,” he told me. At the same time, Lomas said, Lahti framed sisu as “a universal human capacity—it just so happened that the Finns had noticed it and coined a word for it.” The conference ended the next day, but Lomas kept thinking about sisu. There must be other expressions like it, he thought—words in foreign languages that described positive traits, feelings, experiences, and states of being that had no direct counterparts in English. Wouldn’t it be fascinating, he wondered, to gather all these in one place? Soon after Lomas returned to the University of East London, where he is a lecturer in applied positive psychology, he launched the Positive Lexicography Project, an online glossary of untranslatable words. To assemble the first edition—two hundred and sixteen expressions from forty-nine languages, published in January—he scoured the Internet and asked his friends, colleagues, and students for suggestions. Lomas then used online dictionaries and academic papers to define each word and place it into one of three overarching categories, doing his best to capture its cultural nuances. The first group of words referred to feelings, such as Heimat (German, “deep-rooted fondness towards a place to which one has a strong feeling of belonging”). The second referred to relationships, and included mamihlapinatapei (Yagán, “a look between people that expresses unspoken but mutual desire”), queesting (Dutch, “to allow a lover access to one’s bed for chitchat”), and dadirri (Australian Aboriginal, “a deep, spiritual act of reflective and respectful listening”). Finally, a third cluster of words described aspects of character. Sisu falls in this category, as do fēng yùn (Mandarin Chinese, “personal charm and graceful bearing”) and ilunga (Tshiluba, “being ready to forgive a first time, tolerate a second time, but never a third time”). Since January, the glossary has grown to nearly four hundred entries from sixty-two languages, and visitors to the Web site have proposed new entries and refined definitions. It is a veritable catalogue of life’s many joys, featuring terms like utepils (Norwegian, “a beer that is enjoyed outside . . . particularly on the first hot day of the year”), mbuki-mvuki (Swahili, “to shed clothes to dance uninhibited”), tarab (Arabic, “musically induced ecstasy or enchantment”), and gigil (Tagalog, “the irresistible urge to pinch/squeeze someone because they are loved or cherished”). In the course of compiling his lexicon, Lomas has noted several interesting patterns. A handful of Northern European languages, for instance, have terms that describe a sort of existential coziness. The words—koselig (Norwegian), mysa (Swedish), hygge (Danish), and gezellig (Dutch)—convey both physical and emotional comfort. “Does that relate to the fact that the climate is colder up there and you would value the sense of being warm and secure and cozy inside?” Lomas asked. “Perhaps you can start to link culture to geography to climate. In contrast, more Southern European cultures have some words about being outside and strolling around and savoring the atmosphere. And those words”—like the French flâner and the Greek volta—“might be more likely to emerge in those cultures.” Continued here How to Make Any Business Trip Less Boring - Harvard Business Review    Too many of us treat business travel as a curse. Unfortunately, most business travel advice goes something like this: Hunt for Wi-Fi like it’s water, stick to your itinerary, stay in a safe (read: sterile) hotel, and take care of yourself as best you can until it’s over. The next time you travel for work, try something different: Treat every moment as an adventure. Interact with the locals, avoid getting online, and take at least a day to do nothing but explore. Skip the in-flight Wi-Fi and use the time for deep work – it’s amazing what you can accomplish without the distractions of social media. Stay in an Airbnb instead of a hotel. Stop into a museum after a meeting. Eat food that you can’t get at home. The point is: try something new. Trying new things, working with people of all stripes, and improvising in complex situations are the “soft” skills employers work so hard to teach. They may be uncomfortable, but they’re part of the adventure — and that’s what so many business travelers seem to be forgetting. London. Barcelona. Beijing. The world’s business hubs are also desirable travel destinations. And yet, when we’re sent there for a conference or client meeting, many of us act like it’s a slog. Continued here

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