Ring my bell

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Wages are now lagging behind inflation; What actually triggers nostalgia; There’s a new app that helps you keep track of the value of your jewellery; and some advice on what not to say!

Let’s get into it!

Nostalgia research almost always reveals two things: boredom is one of its most reliable triggers, and the conjured memory almost always resembles a protagonist in a story.

According to a paper in Psychology Today by former Instagram marketing chief Eric Solomon, the second one can be described as “memories of a time when you were holding the pen.”

In other words, nostalgia isn’t actually the memory, but the container of memories in which you were the author of your own experiences. In today’s day and age of algorithmic everything, is there any kind of experience we’re the true architects of unless we’re consciously avoiding the use of devices?

When nostalgia is triggered, it’s because “the mind senses a deficit in authorship and dips into the archive for evidence that you were once a person who caused things to happen,” said Solomon.

Maybe that’s why nostalgia is a little bit painful, too.

“It takes us to a place where we ache to go again,” said Don Draper in Mad Men’s famous Carousel pitch.

So the next time you’re feeling nostalgic, consider what’s missing today that’s making you long for yesterday. Are you losing control of your attention and, by extension, your ability to author your own experiences? Penmanship is becoming a lost art, but as long as there’s nostalgia to remind us how, we can always pick that pen back up again.

A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research suggests a person’s hand grip strength (HGS) can be a predictor of their risk for developing depression.

The researchers built a pool of participants comprised of 12 unique groups totalling 500,000 people from around the world. They found those with weaker HGS had a 42% higher risk of depression or depressive symptoms.

HGS has previously been found to be associated with various other health risks or conditions, including high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

332 million people live with depression, and though some research suggests it’s genetic, it can really hit anyone at any time. HGS was found to be a consistent predictor, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, body type, etc., making it uniquely suitable to act as a tool for physicians to assist with prognoses and diagnoses.

The researchers noted that the risk factors were not necessarily causal, and weren’t determinative for cohorts lasting longer than a year, given how things can change mentally for people over time.

However, given the complexity and potential expenses of getting assessed for depression, many don’t have access to requisite treatment options. The HGS method could help democratize care for in such cases.

The value of an ounce of gold in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s was between $35 and $200, meaning tons of family heirlooms have all of a sudden gained immense value in recent years as the price of gold has surged.

Of the people who have such heirlooms lying around their houses, most likely aren’t familiar with the immense value they’ve gained over the years. In an effort to help those who’ve taken interest, Indian-American entrepreneur Sindhi Singhvi co-created an app called Unvault that allows users to upload pictures of their jewelry to track its value like a stock portfolio.

“Unvault is a way to understand the value of your jewelry that is locked in drawers and completely out of your thoughts,” Singhvi told GNN’s Andy Corbley in a telephone interview.

“It’s your first line of defense to understand a little bit about the asset you own. We put it in a portfolio for you, so think about a Robinhood for your jewelry, where you can see the value of it change with the values on the market.”

A troy ounce of gold peaked around $5,600 in January, and though it’s now back to around $4,500, Singhvi says he believes “this is gold’s moment,” and the app could help folks stay on top of it.

A debate, a negotiation, or even just a heated conversation is a game of back and forth that includes subtleties that you might reflect on later, with frustration.

The act of pulling back on saying something just as it’s about to come out of your mouth can be an awkward-looking action, and it’s often self-perceived as uncertainty and weakness during a negotiation.

According to Kwame Christian, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute, it’s never as bad as it seems, though she does concede it’s a difficult hurdle to mentally clear in a high-stakes negotiation.

More importantly, though, she says it’s helpful to learn the art of the pull-back to avoid the trap set by the 99% rule. This rule refers to getting 99% of a negotiation right, but letting an impulsive 1% sabotage the whole thing. We’ve all said something we probably shouldn’t have at the height of a debate.

Pivoting, therefore, becomes the sought-after skill, in which the awkwardness is replaced by a stop sign, and then a quick transition that can steer you back onto the path to progress. Some examples she provides include:

• “That’s not quite what I meant, let me try again.”

• “Hold on, let me rephrase that.”

• “Actually, let me say that in a different way.” 

• “You know what, scratch that. Let’s focus on…”
  
  

We’ll always have trivia

We’re getting extra nostalgic today by lookin’ at some Turner Classic style movies with today’s trivia! 📽️