Interview with Marty Nemko in J Weekly

I am honored that J Weekly chose to profile me in its current issue.  He asked me pointed questions and I tried to be fully candid.

The Silenced Majority

I worry how polarized we are. It could even lead to Civil War II.  I believe the solution is to pull the duct tape off the Silenced Majority's mouth. I make the case in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Marketing is Evil

We've become inured to marketing's being evil. I try to pull the blinders off in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Reclusive Twin

In the latest of my PsychologyToday.com profiles of people who'd rather be alone, I offer my interview with a 69-year-old twin.

Subjectivity in Performance Evaluations

Often, workplace advice is too pat. For example, "Have measurable goals."
Fact is, quality is difficult to quantify. Can we quantify a psychotherapist’s performance? A musician’s? A writer’s?

In fact, if we attempt to quantify quality, we likely reduce our judgments' validity.  To reduce an employee’s performance to a number is, well, reductionistic. 

That’s true even of the ostensibly quantifiable jobs such as sales. Whether or not a salesperson meets the quota tells only part of the story. To what extent did the salesperson omit details about the product that might have appropriately led the customer to choose a competitor’s product? To what extent did the salesperson spend time helping the customer even though it didn't directly result in more sales? Don't those things count?

My PsychologyToday.com article today presents a dialogue that dramatically addresses the issue of subjectivity in the workplace. Its goal is not to provide a pat answer because none is possible but hopefully to add nuance to your dealing with subjective decisions and to increase empathy for the person on the other side of the table.

A Philosophical Recluse: The latest in my series of profiles of people who prefer to be alone.

My latest profile of a reclusive person tells of a 30-year-old who has concluded that being with people is more trouble than it's worth.

Best and Worst Self-Help Tips

Today is the 1,000th day in a row that I’ve written an article on PsychologyToday.com. This seems a good time to offer what I believe are my most helpful self-help tips, and I close with  some popular advice I think is horrible. Here is the link to that article.