The Atlantic

For centuries, strict social norms dictated what people could politely talk about. Now we have to figure it out for ourselves. (From 2022)

“Donald Trump’s defenders on the Supreme Court repeat one of the most basic principles of American constitutional government: ‘The president is not above the law.’ They then proceed to obliterate it,” Adam Serwer writes. https://lnkd.in/eGgFMRWh

To kill the dining room is to design American loneliness, M. Nolan Gray writes. “The dining room is the closest thing the American home has to an appendix—a dispensable feature that served some more important function at an earlier stage of architectural evolution,” Gray writes. Classic, walled-off dining rooms now gather dust waiting for the next holiday. Americans have taken to eating in spaces “that double as kitchens or living rooms—a small price to pay for making the most of their square footage.” But in many new apartments, “eating is relegated to couches and bedrooms, and hosting a meal has become virtually impossible,” Gray writes. “The apex predator of the dining room is the ‘great room’—a combined living room and kitchen, bridged by an open dining space.” And that’s what people want. Surveys from 2015 and 2016 show that “86 percent of households want a combined kitchen and dining room—a preference accommodated by only 75 percent of new homes,” Gray continues. “If anything, the classic dining room isn’t dying fast enough for most people’s taste.” “The transition from the classic dining room to the great room mirrors the changes in gender norms and family formation that have occurred over the past 125 years,” Gray writes. Sectioned-off rooms “were designed around creating a separate sphere for ‘the help,’” or, when unaffordable, the women in the family. But now, people are reallocating their limited square footage to maximize personal space—walk-in closets, or bigger bedrooms, especially for those living alone or with roommates. “As households and dining spaces have contracted, the number of people eating alone has grown,” Gray continues. “According to a 2015 report by the Food Marketing Institute, nearly half the time we spend eating is spent in isolation, a central factor in America’s loneliness epidemic and a correlate to a range of physical- and mental-health problems.” “How many more dinners would be shared if we had the space to host guests?” 📸: Carolyn Drake /Magnum https://lnkd.in/gQkSSFpX

For many people, the talents that bloom later in life are more consequential than the ones that bloom early, David Brooks writes.⁠ https://lnkd.in/eDq9xmdX ⁠ “Today we live in a society structured to promote early bloomers,” Brooks explains. “Many of our most prominent models of success made it big while young—Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, Michael Jordan. Magazines publish lists with headlines like ‘30 Under 30’ to glamorize youthful superstars on the rise.” ⁠ ⁠ Yet successful late bloomers are all around us. Why do some people hit their peak later than others? “Late bloomers are not simply early bloomers on a delayed timetable—they didn’t just do the things early bloomers did but at a later age,” Brooks writes. “Late bloomers tend to be qualitatively different, possessing a different set of abilities that are mostly invisible to or discouraged by our current education system. They usually have to invent their own paths.”⁠ ⁠ “These people don’t do as much advanced planning as the conceptual geniuses, but they regard their entire lives as experiments,” Brooks continues. “They try something and learn, and then they try something else and learn more. Their focus is not on their finished work, which they often toss away haphazardly. Their focus is on the process of learning itself: Am I closer to understanding, to mastering? They live their lives as a long period of trial and error, trying this and trying that, a slow process of accumulation and elaboration, so the quality of their work peaks late in life. They are the ugly ducklings of human achievement, who, over the decades, turn themselves into swans.”⁠ https://lnkd.in/eDq9xmdX 🎨: The Atlantic. Source: Archivio GBB / Redux.

Research about changing jobs illuminates trends that can guide your decision making, help lower uncertainty, and manage your expectations, Arthur Brooks writes. ⁠https://lnkd.in/en6zHD-S ⁠ Research has established that #job satisfaction usually does indeed rise when people start new #employment. But at the six-month mark on average, an inflection occurs, depending on the “career orientation” of the job changer. People with a self-oriented #career orientation—defined as those who see themselves as independently responsible for managing their career—have more churn and less job satisfaction than those with an organization-oriented career orientation—those who prioritize loyalty and security, and envision their career as part of a greater whole. Research also shows that people who are generally happier tend to be more adaptable in their career. In fact, happiness is the most significant predictor of being able to make the best of professional changes. ⁠ ⁠ If you are considering a change of job but feel paralyzed by fear of the unknown, the research offers a few practical lessons to help assuage your anxiety, Brooks continues. First, manage your expectations: The change most likely won’t make you worse off, but don’t romanticize it. If your expectations are too high, you will be disappointed; then you might find yourself on the job market over and over again, stuck in a cycle of unmet hopes. Next, look for happiness outside of work. When things are good in the rest of your life, they seem more stable and less bothersome at the job.⁠ ⁠ Last, jump before you’re pushed. Getting fired or laid off from work commonly provokes frustration, guilt, embarrassment, and anger—and is likely to coincide with less satisfaction when you find a new job. “Sometimes, losing your job comes as a complete surprise, but advance warning can take such forms as a change of management, a hiring freeze, or a switch in product line,” Brooks writes. “If you stay alert, you have a better chance of leaving on your own terms.”⁠ Read more: ⁠https://lnkd.in/en6zHD-S

A stark enthusiasm gap has opened up in a longtime Democratic stronghold in Georgia.

When I move pieces on a board, reality is held at bay—and I do not think of death, Cory Leadbeater writes:

In the psychogeography of Southern California, "the big one" lies like a sleeping monster deep beneath the Earth's surface, writes Ross Andersen. Scientists are still trying to predict when it will wake up:

A new attitude of moral unease toward international travel is pervasive, Chelsea Leu writes. Would we be doing the world a favor if we just stayed home?

“The O.C.” is a self-aware and heartwarming teen show that also helped create a new archetype of the heartthrob, @IsabelFattal writes in the Sunday Daily: