Postpourri - management, hills of Iowa, happiness

I enjoyed this article in The Atlantic about happiness (What Makes Us Happy, by Joshua Wolf Shenk) and the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a longitudinal study that tracked a number of Harvard students over their entire lives. If you're looking for some advice from the study, this is the crux of it, "seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically. Employing mature adaptations was one [humor being high on the list]. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight."

I've been practicing my strumming lately. Erik sent me this good link from Heartwood Guitar on How to Strum with numerous exercises. Here are a couple of online metronomes if those are helpful.

Slacker Manager's top 5 management videos. Erik says the Tribes one is good. I intend to watch it soon.

Scalzi referenced this: is creativity linked to drinking in some people?

Training for RAGBRAI: Iowa is NOT flat.