We all know the phrase “Work smarter, not harder”. The more I think about it, the more it strikes me as an empty buzz phrase. “Ooh, you mean I don’t have to work as hard if I buy your [product]? I’ll take two!”

The truth is we’re all working about as intelligently as our brains will allow. Sure someone can inform us of new, more efficient ways of doing things, but that’s only part of the equation. Think of any successful person. Anyone. Chances are they owe more of their success to their efforts than their intelligence. “10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration,” right?

I’m sold on the virtues of hard work. Hopefully you are too. Now we just need a way to work our butts off and not let it ruin our lives; we need to be quality workaholics. Here’s my take on what it takes.

The hot new thing amongst runners is barefoot running. The pitch usually goes like this:

“You must run barefoot. Shoe padding makes your muscles weak, causing injuries.”

This argument starkly contrasts with an old wisdom that states:

“You must replace your running shoes every six months. If you don’t the padding will wear out and you’ll get injuries.”

So which is it? Shoe padding prevents injuries, or causes them? Let’s see if we can find a reliable answer rooted in empirical evidence, not hearsay.

Long before the Segway and other “revolutionary” means of transportation, there was the Vespa. Like the Segway, Vespas were efficient two-wheeled vehicles. Unlike the Segway, it was cool to be seen on one. Nevertheless, the Vespa was born of practical needs, not fashionable ones, and Corradino D’Ascanio was its pragmatic creator.

D’Ascanio was tasked with designing a form of mobility that was inexpensive, simple, and pleasant on the driver. Carefully considering the manufacturing requirements of such a machine, he created that which endures to this day in similar form.

There are certain industries that, collectively, lack credibility. The posture aid industry is one of them. It seems to be filled with hucksters hawking snake oil devices. I know that improving posture requires hard work — sorry, no getting around that — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some advantages to be had with modern tools.

The difficult part is finding posture aids that aren’t just cleverly marketed junk. People need tools that, you know… do something. How many times have I found an ostensibly great product, Googled it, and found scam alerts, enlightening reviews, and conflicts of interest that discredited said product. Today i want to review a number of posture aids (most of which I’ve owned or used), list their pros and cons, and let you decide if they fit your needs.

To a diabetic, understanding blood sugar is of critical importance. To the rest of us, it’s about as comprehensible as a complex biochemical molecule; which it, in fact, is. Yet we all have days where we feel just exhausted, times when we can’t think straight, moments of extreme pep followed by stretches of lethargy. These affect us frequently; isn’t it worth learning the reason?

Let’s not let science scare us off. There’s much to be gained from understanding how the food we eat becomes the fuel we burn. The conversion of cereal and milk to physical exertion is an elegant, complex process that cascades into varied physical manifestations. How we eat can magnetize us to our mattresses or be the wind at our backs.

So here is a simple, practical guide to the human machine and how it turns fajitas into fuel.

Did you know that you can learn while you sleep? It’s 100% true.

No it’s not. But when reading a line like that, for a brief, fleeting moment, there’s a twinge of excitement. “Is this a new development? Is this something I’ve been missing my whole life?” Nope. It’s just a line to get you hooked. In this case, it’s one I’ve seen time and time again.

I’m sorry. It’s impossible to learn while you’re sleeping. But that doesn’t stop some people from employing pseudoscientific and wholly inaccurate claims to sever suckers from their money.

There is, however, an important relationship between sleep and learning that can help us out in our quotidian lives. Today I’d like to clarify that link.

The other day I was on the internet and… that’s it. Nothing else happened that day. Yet it was one of the most productive days in recent memory. All I was doing was shopping for stuff online. I found great products at great prices, while saving time and gas. I’ve been doing this since my dial-up days and have used my cheap fastidious nature to develop a few techniques.

“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.”

Leonardo da Vinci, if you didn’t already know, was a painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, and apparently, quite a workaholic. To read his list of accomplishments aloud requires several deep, replenishing breaths. Notable in his accomplishments was the conceptualization of flying machines – airplanes – 400 years before their manufacture.

Now, I’ve built some wicked paper airplanes, but that’s it. My accomplishments feel a little hollow in comparison. This got me thinking. Why is it that some people can accomplish so much? What experiences spur them? What circumstances enable them? In looking for the answer, I drew up a list of people I consider prolific. Then I searched for clues in biographies and online. Here are the results.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what it takes to be athletic. What are the measurements, skills, and abilities that make someone so? Should you be able to jump high? Run far? Or land a ball on a target from 100 paces?

Even with the help of stodgy dictionary definitions, the question of what makes somebody athletic is a broad one. The interpretations are varied but there are common factors that can generally be agreed upon. This article outlines the research and thought that I’ve put into the subject, and attempts to find an answer that covers all bases. After all, how can you land a ball on a target when you don’t know what the target looks like?

Sometimes I think the world is against me — and I’m a white male, age 21 to 49. What if I were, say, sickly, or homosexual, or part of an oft-persecuted religious group, or even French!

Marcel Proust was all those things.

Yet, Proust’s seven volume story À la recherche du temps perdu was called the “greatest fiction to date”. Despite being an obvious target for persecution, he became of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century. How’s he do it?