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Five takeaways:

1. This article discusses a new book called The Good Enough Life that makes a broad ideology of “Good-enoughness”– a healthy mental alternative to the burden of over-aspirational “greatness thinking.”
2. While there is no problem with wanting to be great, the book argues that we must be conscious of clinging too tightly to extraordinarily lofty goals– and that doing so sets us up for both practical and emotional failure.
3. If we can accept that frustration, roadblocks, and limitations both personal and external are unavoidable, the book argues, we begin to approach problems and goals in a much more practical way. This, in turn, brings us a feeling of momentum and positivity.
4. “Greatness” thinking can be very limiting in interactions and effort in life– if we view our lives on a single tracked path to a distant “great” goal (say, winning an Oscar or publishing a best-selling book), then we are forced to devalue certain relationships and hobbies as wastes of time– even if they bring us overall joy.
5. The “Good Enoughness” concept can be applied to external goals as well. For instance, the global scale of a problem like climate change can cause “inflexible” thinking about its eventual solution. Since we cannot do the great thing of solving it ourselves, we often overlook the smaller, shorter-term changes we actually can control.

From Lily Meyer at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Five takeaways:

1. Opening with the phenomenon of marathon runners who finish races on broken legs (which turns out to be more common than you might think), this article is about knowing when to quit!
2. Duke argues that there is a downside to grit. While it can get you to stick to hard and worthwhile pursuits, it can also push you into harmful wastes of time.
3. One force that keeps us holding on to harmful things for too long is the famous “sunk cost fallacy” – the cognitive error in which people think that the time, money, and effort they’ve invested on a pursuit means they should continue at it.
4. People often fall victim to “status quo bias” – when considering making a change, a person is likely to stick with the current situation, because the new option represents an unknown. “We prefer the devil we know,” as the old adage goes.
5. We fear that when we quit we are admitting failure. But we need to start looking at the waste of time and resources as a forward-looking problem, not a backward-looking one.

From Annie Duke at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Five takeaways:

1. Let’s start with the basics: champagne is a sparkling wine that bears the name of the region it comes from- the Champagne region of northeastern France.
2. Champagnes are generally known for their bright acidity and light, lively body, often with a brioche-y and/or nutty quality thanks to required minimum aging on the lees, or dead yeast cells
3. Champagne differs from other sparkling wines in its fermentation process. It’s second fermentation happens naturally, inside the bottle– a natural carbonic gas that cannot escape the sealed bottle naturally makes the wine sparkling.
4. Champagne producers fall into two categories: Récoltant-Manipulant and Négociant-Manipulant.
   • A Récoltant-Manipulant grower, independently makes his or her wines onsite under his or her own label using grapes grown on the house’s vineyards exclusively.
   • A Négociant-Manipulant — such as Veuve Clicquot, Moët Chandon, and other big, well-known brand names — is defined as a group that buys outside grapes then produces the champagne on their premises. These make up most of the international market.
5. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Meunier are the most commonly used grapes in the production of champagne.

From Céline Bossart for Food & Wine
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Five takeaways:

1. This article draws a clear and pivotal distinction between pleasure, which Brooks views as a potentially harmful, short-term salve– and enjoyment, which can be far more productive and fulfilling.
2. Brooks notes: “Pleasure happens to you; enjoyment is something that you create through your own effort. Pleasure is the lightheadedness you get from a bit of grain alcohol; enjoyment is the satisfaction of a good wine, properly understood.”
3. Enjoyment can give you sense of effort, foreword movement, and accomplishment. Enjoyment is a commitment to engaging with and savoring a situation.
4. The examples are everywhere, and as simple as exercise: We enjoy being fit, but exercise itself may not bring us pleasure, as it is strenuous and time-consuming.
5. Pursuing enjoyment over pleasure makes you intentionally independent from base impulses and pushes you towards more insight and personal growth.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.