Tis the season of the US News tournament, when our mailboxes fill with literature touting the achievements of law schools far and wide. Most of us think that this “game” is seriously flawed and wish our schools didn’t have play the game, but we generally feel compelled to do so because of the significant consequences. … Continue reading Missouri Scholarship Booklet
Money can’t buy me love. – Paul McCartney As a corollary to psychologist McCartney’s insight, money can’t buy lawyers (much) happiness. That’s one of the key findings of Lawrence Krieger and Kennon Sheldon’s impressive study, What Makes Lawyers Happy?: A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success. This post includes excerpts from this article, sans … Continue reading What Makes Lawyers Happy? – And How Can You Help?
An article in the New York Times, The Rationality of Rage, summarizes the findings of several studies about when expressing anger can be productive. Despite the catchy title of the article, expressing rage generally isn’t helpful. But expressing anger can be useful in some situations. The article distinguishes three types of negotiations – primarily cooperative … Continue reading Good Anger
Life can be darn irritating. In a NYT op-ed piece, Arthur Brooks argues that “When I am working for myself, any disappointing outcome is a stressful, unpleasant reflection on me. When I am serving, on the other hand, the work is always intrinsically valuable because of its intention. Adopting a service mind-set guarantees some measure … Continue reading Satisfaction Through Service
This conversation started with my post about planned early dispute resolution (PEDR). My friend, Peter Benner, and I exchanged comments in that post. Here are links to Part 2-ish, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 in this conversation. I had some questions about Peter’s last post. Here I pose the questions and Peter responded. … Continue reading Conversation with Peter Benner about PEDR, Part 6
This conversation started with my post about planned early dispute resolution (PEDR). My friend, Peter Benner, and I exchanged comments in that post. Here are links to Part 2-ish, Part 3, and Part 4 in this conversation. This is Peter’s response to my last post. ________________________________________________ In your question of whether we may be in … Continue reading Conversation with Peter Benner about PEDR, Part 5
Alert readers have noticed that Peter Benner and I have been having a conversation about planned early dispute resolution (PEDR) in the comments to a recent post of mine on the subject. Peter, a mediator and ironman, is a friend with whom I share an interest in encouraging lawyers and parties – especially businesses – … Continue reading Conversation with Peter Benner about PEDR, Part 2-ish
Have you seen “Inside Out” yet? It’s the delightful Pixar movie portraying the conflicting emotions of an 11 year-old girl grappling with the difficulties of a move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Indeed, the emotions are characters themselves: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Sadness, and Joy. The film’s producers consulted psychologists who wrote a piece in the … Continue reading Damn Emotions!
Jim Coben, on behalf of himself and Nancy Welsh, is circulating the following request. Dear Colleagues: I write to appeal to the “hive-mind” on behalf of the Dispute Resolution Magazine. In the upcoming fall issue, we are planning to include a “numbers” teaser box. More specifically, it’s an opportunity to feature interesting statistics and/or other … Continue reading Coben and Welsh Want Your Favorite Number
A short piece in the New York Times by Harvard economists and Yale psychologists has a suggestion that may surprise you – or maybe not – about people’s motivation to cooperate. The authors focus on the “tragedy of the commons” which is the situation “where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each’s self-interest behave … Continue reading Why Cooperate?
