How Long Will Your Marriage Last?

Not too long if there is contempt in your conversations. That's what psychologist John Gottman has found in his lab at the University of Washington through which more than 3,000 couples have transited. In fact he's able to predict 18 times out of 20 whether a couple will still be together 15 years later just by listening to 15 minutes of their interactions. Applying this kind of analysis fellow psychologist Nalini Ambady has identified four factors that will prompt a patient to sue her surgeon.

Even if you're not a married doctor you may still want to order Gladwell's bestseller Blink by clicking on the image below to find out about plenty of other interesting stuff like why you should trust your sweat glands when playing cards.

The Perils of Mitigated Speech

That would explain why Korean Air planes crashed relatively often until recently. It could also remind us why Meade was proven wrong and why there is no guarantee that Mauritius will be able to weather the current global recession as well as it should have. Demographic luck will get you ahead in life. Poor kids fade behind because their holidays do not provide the same mind-expanding opportunities as those of their richer friends. A hedging program could benefit enormously from learning how rice is grown in the Pearl River Delta.

That's some of the stuff I am taking away from finishing Malcolm Gladwell's latest book Outliers. Great book to read for anybody interested in policy-making along with Freakonomics and The Conscience of a Liberal and can be ordered cheapest from the earth's biggest bookstore by clicking on the picture below.