Making Faces:

• Check out this fairly technical article about facial expressions as social tools. Plenty of sociologic jargon, talking about an “externalist, functionalist view of facial displays.” 
• The general idea is that the facial expressions we make could be more to induce feelings or behaviors in others than to actually express what is on our mind. Example: bowlers who get a strike wait until they turn around to smile. They address the “curious but common occurrence of solitary facial behavior.” They argue that our expressions are meant to influence others, “whether our ‘interactants’ are real or fantasied people, non-human animals, virtual agents, or even inanimate objects toward which we attribute agency.” 

Daily Zen:

• Try this daily centering practice. Bookmark dialyzen.com. Just try to go to the site once a day and reflect on the quote. Simple, takes no time. No excuses.

Tough Week:

• For the first time since medical school, I (Martin) went a week without caffeine. To begin, I could not have done this without decaf coffee. Decaf has anywhere from 5-20 mg of caffeine per cup, so it was not a caffeine free week, but close. Many testimonials are available online. I didn’t keep a detailed journal, but learned some important things.
1. this is not fun.
2. some withdrawal the first day or two, but the worst brain fog and malaise was more like days 3 and 4.
3. decaf coffee is a nice substitute. many health benefits, taste is solid. Quills uses a sugarcane decaf process, most other respectable places use the Swiss water process. Avoid industrial, chemical processes. 
4. I tend to agree with the evidence that caffeine use in chronic consumers likely just brings one back to a baseline level of “performance.” ie if you drink caffeine all the time you’re just maintaining a baseline. 
5. The first day back was great, I did feel a more prominent alertness from the caffeine. Also have been drinking about half as much daily caffeine since then and enjoying the effects.
• Here are some energetic alternatives to coffee. 

Planks:

• Practical, efficient exercise that can be done anywhere. Planks strengthen the arms, legs, shoulders, ABS!. You can start with 10 seconds and work up to minutes at a time. Here is an article on a more intense plank rather than going for long duration. Similar to the idea of the planche in gymnastics, purposefully giving yourself less leverage. Another way to add resistance is for one or more children to climb onto your back. 
• Again, no excuse not to bust out a couple planks every day. Just make sure to wash your hands if you’re doing them in the hospital. 

Middleman Minorities:

• Thomas Sowell is a highly respected economist (NNT would say this is a paradox, seriously read this). 
• Sowell’s essay about “middleman minorities” is fascinating. He talks about many ethnic groups, Jewish, Armenian, Chinese, Lebanese. These are groups of people acting as intermediaries between producers and consumers. He describes the animosity of the majority groups to these middlemen despite the vital function they perform in various economic systems. The resentment exists even when the middlemen are of the same ethnicity as the broader community which they operate (eg Serbia). 
• Their necessity is evident in cases of expulsion of such groups, when famines kill people due not to lack of food, but lack of food distribution. These groups often start with very little, have a small profit margin, live a life without excess, and over time build family wealth and encourage education in subsequent generations. 

Quote:

To have a great day: 1) Smile at a stranger, 2) Surprise someone by saying something unexpectedly nice, 3) Give some genuine attention to an elderly, 4) Invite someone who doesn’t have many friends for coffee, 5) Humiliate an economist, publicly, or create deep anxiety inside a Harvard professor.

– Nicholas Nassim Taleb