The David Rubenstein Show: Jeff Bezos doesn’t like meetings before 10 am.

You don’t like meetings before 10 am.  You like to get 8 hours of sleep.

 

As a senior executive, you get paid to make a few big decisions regarding future quarters 2 or 3 years in advance.  If I make 3 good decisions today that’s good enough.

 

If Amazon was a startup, that would be different.

 

Sep.19 — Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder, entrepreneur and owner of the Washington Post, talks to David Rubenstein about his background, how he came up with the idea for Amazon, building the company, some of the key businesses including Prime and Whole Foods, the space race and philanthropy. The world’s richest man says his most important decisions are made not with quantitative analysis but “with instinct, intuition, taste, heart.” Bezos speaks in the latest episode of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.” The interview was taped on September 13 in Washington.

Solve Your Problems in Your Sleep

Sleep is more than an eight-hour slack-off period where you dream of bizarre situations like showing up naked to your twenty-first birthday party.

When you sleep, you integrate the information you collected during the day and, believe it or not, you problem-solve.

In one study, researchers found that students were better able to solve a problem following a good night’s sleep than by working on it through the night. In fact, you’re twice as likely to solve a problem after sleeping.

Companies, too, are starting to recognize the necessity of adequate rest. Microsoft has taken a step in the right direction by installing an in-house spa for rest and relaxation. And, since decreased work hours have been shown to increase productivity, opportunities for down time, such as using an in-house spa, seem to be a key factor in doing just that.

So now you know what to do when you’re tempted to burn the midnight oil: close your laptop and go to bed. You might just wake up to find that whatever you were working on has worked itself out in the night.

For more on better working habits – including why you should keep a spare shirt in your office – take a look at our blinks to The Organized Mind, by Daniel Levitin.

How heavy use of social media is linked to mental illness

Youngsters report problems with anxiety, depression, sleep and “FoMO”

..  Roughly a quarter of British adults have been diagnosed at some point with a psychiatric disorder, costing the economy an estimated 4.5% of GDP per year.
.. On average, they reported that these social networks gave them extra scope for self-expression and community-building. But they also said that the platforms exacerbated anxiety and depression, deprived them of sleep, exposed them to bullying and created worries about their body image and “FOMO”
.. Sean Parker, Facebook’s founding president, has admitted that the product works by “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”
.. Indeed, an experiment by five neuroscientists in 2014 concluded that Facebook triggers the same impulsive part of the brain as gambling and substance abuse.

How to Sleep

Should you drink more coffee? Should you take melatonin? Can you train yourself to need less sleep? A physician’s guide to sleep in a stressful age.

If coffee does have an effect on longevity, it is likely a result of something more global than the potential effect of antioxidants—such as the fact that constant exposure to caffeine, even at low levels, suppresses appetite (in a world where most people eat more than is ideal). Or that it encourages social interaction—it inclines us to go out and do things with people—which itself is generally beneficial to health.