1 . Creativity is commonly thought of as a personality trait that resides within the individual. We count on creative people to produce the songs, movies, and books we love, to invent the new gadgets that can change our lives, and to discover the new scientific theories and philosophies that can change the way we view the world. Over the past several years, however, social psychologists have discovered that creativity is not only a characteristic of the individual, but may also change depending on the situation and context. The question, of course, is what those situations are: what makes us more creative at times and less creative at others?

One answer is psychological distance. According to the Construal Level Theory (CLT) of psychological distance, anything that we do not experience as occurring now, here, and to ourselves falls into the “psychologically distant” category. It's also possible to induce a state of “psychological distance” simply by changing the way we think about a particular problem, such as attempting to take another person’s perspective, or by thinking of the question as if it were unreal and unlikely. In this new paper, by Lile Jia and colleagues at Indiana University, scientists have demonstrated that increasing psychological distance so that a problem feels farther away can actually increase creativity.

Why does psychological distance increase creativity? According to CLT, psychological distance affects the way we mentally represent things, so that distant things are represented in a relatively abstract way while psychologically near things seem more concrete. Consider, for instance, a corn plant. A concrete representation would refer to the shape, color, taste, and smell of the plant, and connect the item to its most common use—a food product. An abstract representation, on the other hand, might refer to the corn plant as a source of energy or as a fast-growing plant. These more abstract thoughts might lead us to contemplate other, less common uses for corn, such as a source for ethanol, or to use the plant to create mazes for children. What this example demonstrates is how abstract thinking makes it easier for people to form surprising connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, such as fast-growing plants (corn) and fuel for cars (ethanol) .

In this most recent study, Jia examined the effect of spatial distance on creativity. Participants performed a creative generation task, in which they were asked to list as many different modes of transportation as possible. This task was introduced as having been developed either by Indiana University students studying in Greece (distant condition) or by Indiana University students studying in Indiana (near condition) . As predicated, participants in the distant condition generated more numerous and original modes of transportation than participants in the near condition.

2 . We now live in an age of instant images and emoji, when 10,000 copies of a picture can be spread around the world in seconds by sliding a finger half an inch across a phone screen. This would have been unbelievable and unimaginable 20 years ago. But it is in the world of hand-copied manuscripts (手稿) 1,000 years old or more that the digital revolution has had some of its most profound and obvious beneficial effects. What may have taken three years to write out can today be printed out in three seconds. There are now tens of thousands of once unique documents which have been digitized and placed online for anyone to access all around the world, and this is a vast, democratizing wonder.

Take the Parker Library in Cambridge, which contains the scholarly works during the Reformation (宗教改革时期) and collected by Matthew Parker. It has been digitized in a project with Stanford University, and in 2018 the site was opened to all comers to browse after 10 years behind scholarly paywalls. What is astonishing is not just the texts themselves, but the pictures: the illuminations (插图) on some of the manuscripts show off the fertility and vividness of the medieval imagination.

Digitized collections of these sorts cannot entirely substitute for real libraries. To touch with your own hand a parchment (羊皮纸) from a medieval monk is an experience no screen can offer, but it is one which must always be restricted to a lucky few. There are some things so old and fragile that even being looked at may damage them. The caves at Lascaux had to be closed to protect the paintings from the breath of tourists and replaced by a virtual display.

Yet in some ways these copies are better than the originals. Reproductions of a high enough quality make obvious de tail that’s invisible to the native eye. What’s more, digital collections can be gathered on one screen from across the globe. The International Dunhuang Project reunites on screen tens of thousands of Buddhist scrolls and artifacts in western China. What is possible with this one collection should fairly soon be possible with all the scholarly digitized manuscripts of the world. The hope is to bring them under one system of classification so that they can quickly be searched and sorted no matter where they came from and where they now are stored.

The world may always prefer cat gifs to ancient manuscripts, but the translation from parchment to pixels (像素) reminds us of the humanistic optimism with which the web came into the world, and shows that much of it was not misplaced at all.

3 . Everyone carries a shield（屏障）. Our shields protect what we don’t want others to see, from our embarrassing secrets to our unpredictable feelings.     1     But the problem is that shields can become heavy burdens — easy to put on yet difficult to remove — with terrible effects.

Since shields encourage us to hide negative parts of ourselves, we can start to believe that we aren’t worth showing. We might fear how our friends will judge our struggles or how our families will view our ambitions.     2    

However, we have to remember that we aren’t perfect, nor should we expect to be. We need to find and cure the wounds underneath our shields, but that means we have to let down our guard. We may even have problems we haven’t admitted to ourselves.     3     Even if it seems insignificant, every problem should be acknowledged before it grows. Before being cured, we must know that we need to be cured, and be okay with admitting that.

Knowing this takes bravery and patience, so it’ll be hard.     4     Yet asking for help means admitting our problems to somebody else — it means letting them see what’s behind our shields. To make it easier, we can reveal ourselves to somebody close to us who we trust will understand us and provide personal support. Or, if we fear judgement, we can open up to someone distant but knowledgeable, such as a counsellor or a help line. No matter what, we can find help when we begin searching.

    5     We can be more forgiving of faults so we can become comfortable with ours and encourage others to follow. Most importantly, we can let people know that we are willing to listen and help and make it easier to let down our shields.

By analyzing large amounts of data, Al learns and     1     (improve) with each new task it performs. This has led to a sharp rise in its use in many fields, including healthcare, transportation, and even education. In the healthcare industry, AI     2     (use) to diagnose diseases and design drugs. Another area     3     AI is making an impact is in transportation. Autonomous vehicles,     4     (power) by machine learning algorithms, are becoming more common on the roads.

According to a 2006 Danish study published in the Psychonomic Bulletin &Review, people over age 40 perceive themselves to be, on average, 20 percent younger than     1     their ID indicates. Why do some of us feel that the number of candles on our birthday cake can't be right? Psychologists and scientists    2    (study) this phenomenon since the 1970s. Some wonder about the cultural factors that push us to look younger because old age is often associated     3    being unproductive and dependent. Other factors that lead to us perceiving ourselves as younger are being sociable and having intergenerational relationships.

8 . The only words you need to say after receiving a compliment (赞美) are “thank you”. But you know that's easier said than done.

There are many reasons why you have a hard time accepting compliments.     1     It's a three step process. First, believe what people tell you. If you're still having a hard time taking the compliment, double check. And if it's still hard to accept then you'll have to check yourself.

    2     For example, if you're six feet tall and I say, “Wow, you're tall! ” I'm being honest. I'm five foot nine, so plenty of people are tall compared to me. I'm expressing that subjectively, from my shorter vantage point, you are tall. I'm not saying everyone would agree with me. Just like if I say City of God is a great movie, I'm not saying you have to think it's a great movie.

You have to listen carefully to compliments. It's not always obvious if you're being complimented for something only others can observe. If you are five foot six inches tall, and weigh seventy pounds, I would say you are slim. But if you are comparing yourself to someone who is shorter, and weighs five pounds less than you, you might call yourself plump. In this extreme example, the outside perspective is more accurate than the internal one.       3    

If you're still struggling to accept a compliment, you don't just have to take someone at their word. It can be hard to accept an opinion when it's the opposite of yours, so call in reinforcements. Ask someone else what they think.     4     You can ask two or three or four more people if two isn't enough.

    5     If you mislead or lie to people about your opinions, then it's not surprising that you have a hard time trusting that people's compliments are genuine. Be more honest with people around you, and you'll find it much easier to believe what people say about you.

“I know I should do it, but exercising makes me feel miserable. I’m out of breath, hot and sweaty, and it just hurts. ” Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone.

About 97 percent of us think that getting enough exercise is important for health. One study of 3, 500 adults who used a fitness tracker found that less than 4 percent actually met the goal of 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.

Aside from health, what are your motivations for exercising? A 2024 study of 489 young Spanish adults found that men exercise to improve their self-image, while women are more likely to be motivated by weight loss or reducing body fat. The findings suggest that there’s a relationship between intrinsic motivation and level of physical activity, but how do you get intrinsically motivated if exercise makes you feel miserable?

Here are a few suggestions to help you overcome your bad feelings about exercise:

First, recognize that most habitual exercisers experience some discomfort with their workout. The trick for you is to limit the discomfort while exercising. Your exercise should be physically challenging, but if you’re really struggling, dial it down. Ease up, go slower, use less weight, take a break, or stop sooner; whatever it takes so that you can feel the effort you’re making but you’re not overwhelmed by it. You’re not being a quitter as long as you complete the exercise and do it again the next time.

Second, pair exercise with something that you enjoy. Get earbuds so you can listen to music or a favorite podcast. You can also give yourself a reward for finishing the workout. For example, you could only watch a favorite program on days that you’ve exercised.

Third, do the activity with a friend. If you set a routine exercise schedule with your friend, you’ll go, even if you don’t feel like doing so. You wouldn’t want to disappoint your friend, would you?

Maybe instead of hating exercise, you can dislike it less and take pride in doing it and enjoying its effects.

Even the most habitual exercisers experience some discomfort with their workout, so the more physically challenging, the more effective your exercise would be.