【推荐1】Tina Brigham, a 50-year-old store owner from a suburb of Washington, DC, wrestled with the puzzles while waiting for customers. “If it’s a 30-minute puzzle, I try to figure it out in 12,” she said. After several years, she found she could easily put together employee work schedules in her head. A lot of stores use an electronic scheduling tool, but I have all the data in my mind,” she said. “I think my brain seems sharper and more focused because of the game.”

The games do seem to work. In one 2020 study, Gary Small, chair of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center, found that 1,091 women and men who frequently played cards, bingo, or did crossword puzzles had sharper thinking and memory skills — equivalent to an IQ up to 5.6 points higher — than those who rarely did. The study doesn’t prove that the puzzles directly led to the higher IQs, but it does show that even people who increased their game-playing in their 70s seemed to get brain benefits within a few years.

Exactly how games sharpen memory and cognitive function is still something of a mystery. But advances in neuroimaging (神经影像学) allow researchers to study how the brain reacts to all sorts of outside stimulation. Small later included 60 women and men completing Latin squares. As the puzzles grew more difficult with fewer clues, players slowed down and made more mistakes. That’s when he discovered something surprising: More regions of the brain got involved, especially in the prefrontal cortex (前额叶皮质区)，an area involved with problem-solving, judgment, and memory.

Small suggests that if you find yourself debating whether to spend the next 20 minutes taking a walk or playing a brain game, you should choose the walk. Physical activity can help deliver oxygen and fuel to your brain cells. “If you do one thing to help your brain, I’d say it’s exercise.” he says. “Getting good sleep and keep a balanced diet are also important. Brain games work best as part of a whole package of brain-healthy strategies. And remember: A little fun never hurts.

【推荐1】Rich countries have almost completely wiped out infectious diseases such as cholera and malaria. Instead, their health ministries spend much of their time worrying about illnesses caused by wealth. Cheap, oil food has ended starvation in the rich world, but it also encourages diabetes (糖尿病).

Even education is not always pure good. Over the past few decades, East Asia has seen a surprising rise in the rate of short-sightedness. And a growing pile of evidence suggests that the main reason for this is education— specifically, the fact that children spend large parts of the day in dark classrooms.

Before the long economic growth that began in the 1960s, myopia (近视) was uncommon in East Asia. These days, among the young, it is almost common. In Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei more than 80% of school-leavers are short-sighted. In Seoul over 90% young men are.

If East Asia is the center of the epidemic, the West is not immune. Studies suggest rates of between 20% and 40% in Europe, higher than the natural state of affairs. One study in California found a rate of 59% among 17-to-19-year-olds.

Glasses and contact lenses (隐形眼镜) are expensive. In parts of rural areas where myopia is almost ubiquitous, some families cannot afford either and their children struggle in schools. And severe myopia predisposes (诱发) those who suffer it to other eye diseases in middle age, some of which can cause untreatable loss of vision.

The evidence suggests that regular exposure to bright daylight is important in properly controlling the growth of children’s eyes. Too little light leads to short-sighted eyes. Researchers think that this explains why rates are so high in Asia, where a strong cultural stress on the value of education leads to long school days and, often, private tutoring in the afternoon and evening.

Governments are well placed to solve the problems, while reassuring anxious parents that a bit less classroom time is unlikely to be catastrophic. After all, countries such as Finland and Sweden do well in global education rankings with a less intense approach to education. Giving more outdoor time to young children would still leave room for them to prepare for exams in their teenage years.

【推荐2】Staying in on a Friday might feel like a good idea—you could really use the “alone time” after a busy week—until you get on Instagram. You see your friends eating at that new restaurant you have been wanting to try, and then you start watching another friend’s story before they set out on an exciting road trip.

Suddenly, that alone time you chose doesn’t feel so good anymore. You feel like it’s boring to stay at home—you may even question the purpose of your very existence. Don’t worry, that anxiety is common—and not that new. You are experiencing FOMO, or the fear of missing out.

We are always comparing ourselves to people around us, but sometimes that self-comparison can lead to some pretty bad feelings. “FOMO” is about having thoughts on missing out on opportunities which might increase our happiness,” says Dr. Aarti Gupta. “Humans are social beings and depend on each other to survive, and being left out or not being in the know could have, once upon a time, been a matter of life or death.”

If you find yourself comparing yourself to others in a way that doesn’t feel productive, Gupta recommends practicing an abundance mindset: “This means remembering that there are plenty of opportunities to go around for everyone, and just because someone else found success doesn’t mean that you won’t.” So next time you see someone else win, try congratulating them instead of feeling unhappy.

So the next Friday night you decide to stay in, keep in mind that we are always missing out on something. Choosing one activity or path simply means you’ll miss out on others.

“I think the irony of all of it is that it’s called FOMO, the fear of missing out. But actually, what it is doing is that it’s making you miss out on today and that comfortable bed that you are in right now, or the job that you’re in right now or the relationship that you are in right now because you are so worried about what else is out there,” says Gupta. You can fight FOMO simply by being more fully present and invested in the life you have today.