 |
|
|
|||||
Like many retirement communities, The Terraces serves as a tranquil refuge for a nucleus of older people who no longer can travel to faraway places or engage in bold adventures.But they can still be thrust back to their days of wanderlust and thrill-seeking whenever caretakers at the community in Los Gatos, California, schedule a date for residents many of whom are in their 80s and 90s to take turns donning virtual reality headsets.Within a matter of minutes, the headsets can transport them to Europe, immerse them in the ocean depths or send them soaring on breathtaking hang-gliding expeditions while they sit by each other. The selection of VR programming was curated by Rendever, a company that has turned a sometimes isolating form of technology into a catalyst for better cognition and social connections in 800 retirement communities in the United States and Canada.A group of The Terraces residents who participated in a VR session earlier this year found themselves paddling their arms alongside their chairs as they swam with a pod of dolphins while watching one of Rendever’s 3D programs. “We got to go underwater and didn’t even have to hold our breath!” exclaimed 81-year-old Ginny Baird following the virtual submersion.During a session featuring a virtual ride in a hot-air balloon, one resident gasped, “Oh my God!” Another shuddered, “It’s hard to watch!”The Rendever technology can also be used to virtually take older adults back to the places where they grew up as children. For some, it will be the first time they’ve seen their hometowns in decades.A virtual trip to her childhood neighborhood in New York City’s Queens borough helped sell Sue Livingstone, 84, on the merits of the VR technology even though she still is able to get out more often than many residents of The Terraces, which is located in Silicon Valley about 55 miles south of San Francisco.“It isn’t just about being able to see it again, it’s about all the memories that it brings back,” Livingstone said. “There are a few people living here who never really leave their comfort zones. But if you could entice them to come down to try out a headset, they might find that they really enjoy it.”Adrian Marshall, The Terraces’ community life director, said that once word about a VR experience spreads from one resident to another, more of the uninitiated typically become curious enough to try it out even if it means missing out on playing Mexican Train, a dominoes-like board game that’s popular in the community.“It turns into a conversation starter for them. It really does connect people,” Marshall said of Rendever’s VR programming. “It helps create a human bridge that makes them realize they share certain similarities and interests. It turns the artificial world into reality.”Rendever, a privately owned company based in Somerville, Massachusetts, hopes to build upon its senior living platform with a recent grant from the National Institutes of Health that will provide nearly $4.5 million to study ways to reduce social isolation among seniors living at home and their caregivers.Some studies have found VR programming presented in a limited viewing format can help older people maintain and improve cognitive functions, burnish memories and foster social connections with their families and fellow residents of care facilities. Experts say the technology may be useful as an addition to and not a replacement for other activities.“There is always a risk of too much screen time,” Katherine “Kate” Dupuis, a neuropsychologist and professor who studies aging issues at Sheridan College in Canada, said. “But if you use it cautiously, with meaning and purpose, it can be very helpful. It can be an opportunity for the elderly to engage with someone and share a sense of wonder.”VR headsets may be an easier way for older people to interact with technology instead of fumbling around with a smartphone or another device that requires navigating buttons or other mechanisms, said Pallabi Bhowmick, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who is examining the use of VR with older adults.“The stereotypes that older adults aren’t willing to try new technology needs to change because they are willing and want to adapt to technologies that are meaningful to them,” Bhowmick said. “Besides helping them to relieve stress, be entertained and connect with other people, there is an intergenerational aspect that might help them build their relationships with younger people who find out they use VR and say, ‘Grandpa is cool!'”Rendever CEO Kyle Rand’s interest in helping his own grandmother deal with the emotional and mental challenges of aging pushed him down a path that led him to cofound the company in 2016 after studying neuroengineering at Duke University.“What really fascinates me about humans is just how much our brain depends on social connection and how much we learn from others,” Rand said. “A group of elderly residents who don’t really know each other that well can come together, spend 30 minutes in a VR experience together and then find themselves sitting down to have lunch together while continuing a conversation about the experience.”It’s a large enough market that another VR specialist, Dallas-based Mynd Immersive, competes against Rendever with services tailored for senior living communities.Besides helping create social connections, the VR programming from both Rendever and Mynd has been employed as a possible tool for potentially slowing down the deleterious effects of dementia. That’s how another Silicon Valley retirement village, the Forum, sometimes uses the technology.Bob Rogallo, a Forum resident with dementia that has rendered him speechless, seemed to be enjoying taking a virtual hike through Glacier National Park in Montana as he nodded and smiled while celebrating his 83rd birthday with his wife of 61 years.Sallie Rogallo, who doesn’t have dementia, said the experience brought back fond memories of the couple’s visits to the same park during the more than 30 years they spent cruising around the U.S. in their recreational vehicle.“It made me wish I was 30 years younger so I could do it again,” she said of the virtual visit to Glacier. “This lets you get out of the same environment and either go to a new place or visit places where you have been.”In another session at the Forum, 93-year-old Almut Schultz laughed with delight while viewing a virtual classical music performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and later seemed to want to play with a puppy frolicking around in her VR headset.“That was quite a session we had there,” Schultz said with a big grin after she took off her headset and returned to reality. Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Few things seem more obvious and unquestionable than the notion that leaders should always be true to their values, no matter what. This widely-endorsed mantra, known as moral authenticity, is based on two rather logical assumptions. First, leaders (unlike, say, first line supervisors or mid-level managers), are not just in charge to coordinate human activity, but also to act as agents of meaning. Indeed, what most people expect from leaders is some form of inspiration, including ethical guidance, spiritual direction, and strong alignment between their values and behaviors. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Second, followers gravitate towards leaders who share their values or core beliefs. Therefore, they have an incentive to know and understand how leaders feel and think about critical issues (e.g., ideology, politics, social issues, and current affairs) in order to decide whether they are worthy of being followed. Accordingly, leaders who are either unclear about their values or unable to convincingly project what their values are may be incapable of leading, and questioned, if not plainly ignored, by followers. For a modern example in politics, consider John Kerry, who became an emblem of political flip-flopping when, during the 2004 campaign, remarked that he had voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it, referring to a wartime funding bill he initially supported with conditions and later opposed, eroding public trust in the consistency of his convictions. The case for changing course And yet, there are reasons why adhering to a strict consistency isnt always best. For example: (1) Uncertainty invites self-doubt: In an age where almost nothing is certain and the world seems unpredictable, it is only rational (and human) for leaders to think before they act, and have the capacity to not follow their heart, controlling their instinctive impulses and decoupling the stimulus-response chain from knee-jerk reactions. What looks like hesitation is often a sign of maturity: the ability to pause, reflect, and override ones own emotional intuitions in order to choose the response that serves the group, not ones ego. In other words, a leader who never second-guesses themselves is not confident; theyre dangerous. (2) Tolerance requires flexibility: The ability to not just park their values aside, but to attempt to understand and accept the values of others (not just followers, subordinates, and voters, but also critics and opposers) strengthens leaders ability to unite and, well, lead: since leadership is about bringing people together rather than dividing them or enhancing existing divisions. Conversely, leaders who treat their own values as sacred commandments will enhance factions and polarize, appealing to fans and fanatics with cult-like charisma but repelling and antagonizing almost everyone else. Dogmatic rigidity to ones values creates tribes; flexible curiosity creates pragmatic coalitions and unity. (3) Toxic or problematic values: What if the leaders values are wrong, antisocial, or toxic? In those instances, surely leaders would benefit from at least entertaining the possibility that better values can be adopted and espoused in favor of the majority. Values are generally stable over time, but we do have the capacity to change, and that includes changing our views and beliefs around core values (if you want to know yours, take this very short, free assessment). This is especially important when values are maladaptive, or plainly wrong. As I illustrate in my latest book, the most the brutal dictators in history happen to have very few reservations about following their own crooked valuesin fact they were transparent and uncompromisingly true to them, but to everybodys detriment. A leader who insists on being true to their values, even when those values harm others, is doing nobody a favor. From an other-perspective, such leaders would be better off questioning, changing or ignoring their own values, so as to behave according to the prosocial values of the majority. (4) Basic decency and integrity suffice: After that, values are a nice add-on, but what matters is leaders actual competence and ability to lead. The real test is not whether leaders have the right values but whether they behave with integrity, fairness, and restraint when it counts. Competence, empathy, and impulse control routinely outperform any abstract commitment to ones internal belief system, no matter how logical or psychologically appealing that system may be to some (which tends to mean it will be unappealing to others). People dont follow you because they agree with every value you supposedly hold; they follow you because you make good decisions that benefit more than just yourself, and because you have the skills, personality, and ability to make them better. Adapt, rethink, and revise In short, when leaders are decent human beings, with the ability to control their dark side and resist short-term temptations to benefit individually but at the expense of the collective, what matters is not so much what they think or how they feel about polarizing issues, but their ability to persuade a group of people to set aside their individual agendas to become part of a unity, a strong collective that can function and perform. This also means convincing people to set asid their own differences in values, at least when they are at work or attempting to collaborate, so the group can get on with the task of actually achieving something rather than endlessly litigating their personal worldviews. What followers need is not leaders who perform their values but leaders who regulate themselves in service of the group. Teams, organizations, and indeed nations will generally benefit from leaders who can adapt, rethink, and revisenot because they lack conviction, but because they have the humility to prioritize collective progress over personal purity. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Its a new year, which means millions of people are setting resolutions they genuinely want to keep. We want to eat better. Move more. Make more money. Finally get control of our time. Were taking advantage of the Fresh Start Effect, a principle rooted in the idea that people often view new beginnings as an opportunity to distance themselves from past failures and shortcomings. This can lead to a psychological reset, where we experience a renewed sense of optimism, self-efficacy, and motivation, common around the New Year. And yet, by February, most of this motivation will quietly evaporatenot because people dont care, but because the way we set resolutions is fundamentally flawed. Why most resolutions faileven when you really want them to work As a culture, New Years resolutions are tests of your personal discipline. If you stick with them, youre committed. If you dont, you fell off the wagon. Cue the familiar guilt/shame spiral. But new behavioral research suggests something very different. A 2025 multi-country study examining goal persistence found that the strongest predictor of whether someone follows through on a resolution isnt willpower, discipline, or even how specific the goal is. Its intrinsic motivationwhether the behavior itself feels personally meaningful and rewarding, rather than externally pressured. In other words, people dont abandon resolutions because they lack grit. They abandon them because the goal never fit into their real lives in the first place. That helps explain why the most common resolution formatsrigid, outcome-focused goals set once a yeartend to collapse under pressure. The hidden problem with outcome-based goals Most resolutions are framed as endpoints: lose 20 pounds, run a marathon, read 50 books, get promoted. They sound motivating, but behavioral scientists increasingly argue that these outcome-first goals are poorly suited for behavior change. In fact, research suggests that popular frameworks like S.M.A.R.T. goals are no more effective than telling someone to do your best when it comes to sustaining new habits. These types of goals skip the hardest part: the messy bridge between who you are today and who youre trying to become. Tiffany Clevinger is a high-performance hypnotist who says, Its better to make identity-based goals over outcome-based goals . . . Who am I becoming in the process? She suggests reframing a goal like Save more money to an identity target of Become someone who is more responsible with money. When progress inevitably slows, outcome-based goals create a psychological trap. Youre either on track or youve failed. Miss a few workouts or break a streak, and guilt creeps in. Shame follows. Motivation drops. The resolution quietly fades. But some high performers know how to avoid this trap altogether. Why you should think in weeks, not years People who consistently change their behavior dont rely on annual resolutions. They design systems that create momentum every week, not once a year. Weeks offer fast feedback. They allow room for course correction. They make it easier to recover from setbacks without abandoning the entire goal. Instead of asking, Can I do this for a year? they ask, Can I do this easily this week? And, as Clevinger explains, you can still take advantage of the Fresh Start Effect. Instead of looking at January 1st as being the only fresh start, we can look at every Monday as being a micro fresh start, she says. It feels so much lighter, so much easier for the nervous system to commit to. This shiftfrom outcomes to process, from years to weeksis where sustainable change begins. Want to try it out? Heres a science-backed alternative to traditional resolutions, based on our work at Lifehack Method with thousands of professionals who are trying to change real habits inside already full lives. Step 1: Choose one identity shift plus one small habit Behavior change is not easy. Each new habit competes for attention, energy, and willpower. Consistent achievers know this, which is why they focus on a single identity shift theyd genuinely like to evolvenot a full personality overhaul. Their focus is on long-term durability, not 75-hard level intensity. A one percent improvement repeated daily compounds far more reliably than a burst of motivation followed by exhaustion, guilt, and abandonment. As Atomic Habits author James Clear notes, If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time youre done. For example, if you want to become the sort of person who takes care of their body, the one small habit you might commit to is to drink a glass of water each morning when you wake up. As this becomes more automatic, and you have success, you might add an additional small habit such as cooking a healthy breakfast each day. The early stages should feel almost underwhelmingbecause the system is designed to work after motivation fades, not while its high. If it feels boring, youre probably doing it right. Step 2: Add a number to make progress tracking easy Vague resolutions fail because they dont give the brain anything concrete to act on. Adding a simple numeric anchorminutes, frequency, pagesturns a wish into a decision. Exercise more becomes jog for 30 minutes twice a week. Read more becomes read 30 pages before bed. This isnt to make them more rigid, its to increase their clarity. Clear commitments reduce mental friction and give you a satisfying sense of doneness. They are harder to wiggle out of, especially on days when motivation is low. Step 3: Identify the friction before it shows up Most people plan for success and hope obstacles wont appear. But people who stick to their goals assume friction is inevitable, and plan accordingly. Fear, overambition, scheduling conflicts, travel, and fatigue are highly predictable barriers. The more explicitly you identify what might derail a habit, the easier it becomes to respond without spiraling into self-criticism. Asking, What stones are in my path that I need to clear? is a mental shift that keeps you focused on achieving your target for the long term. Step 4: Borrow motivation from structure and accountability Willpower is unreliable, especially when youre already juggling work, family, and constant digital demands. Thats why external structure matters. Research on behavior change consistently shows that accountability increases follow-through by introducing eustresspositive, motivating pressure that reduces the cognitive load of self-regulation. Behavioral scientst Susan Ibitz points to her experience in the military as an extreme but illuminating example. The environment created by the sergeants and soldiers creates momentum; action becomes easier because the structure removes friction. She encourages those of us to design structure into our own lives, starting with someone who can hold us accountable. You need to find a cheerleader who is not your mom. You need someone who sees real value in you, not because they love you, Ibitz says. By joining a social mastermind or working with an accountability partner or coach, youll gain a supportive environment that calls you to the mat in a loving way. When accountability is built into your environment, it keeps you on task when willpower fades. Step 5: Put the habit on your calendaror it doesnt exist Habits dont form through intention alone. They form through repetition in a specific context. Research suggests that simple habits can become more automatic within roughly two months, while more complex behaviors take longer. The mistake most people make is assuming the habit will find a place in their schedule. It wont. Blocking time on your calendaraccounting for travel, energy levels, and realistic constraintsturns the habit into a commitment instead of a hope. Many people also find success by chaining a new habit to an existing one, reducing the mental effort required to start. Step 6: Use rewards Reward is one of the most underused levers in habit formation, especially among high achievers who are often more comfortable with self-criticism than self-reinforcement. Some people rely on negative incentives, like penalties for missed actions. While these can work short-term, they often undermine intrinsic motivation over time. Positive rewards are different. They reinforce identity. They make the process itself feel worthwhile. For example, rewarding yourself with a quick walk around the neighborhood, a bike ride, frisbee with your dog, or a break from work to watch inspiring TED videos is all it takes sometimes to make the juice worth the squeeze. Think of it as an insurance plan against failure, rather than an unnecessary indulgence. Why this system works when resolutions dont Traditional resolutions ask people to change their behavior without changing the system around that behavior. But the people who make lasting changes arent more disciplined than everyone else. Theyre more focused on identity-based, consistent change. By focusing on intrinsic motivation, weekly momentum, structural support, and realistic planning, the goal shifts from perfect execution to staying in the game. Miss a week, and you dont failyou get up and try again. They stop trying to reinvent themselves every January and start designing habits they can live with in February, March, and beyond. So if 2026 is going to be different, it wont be because you wanted it more. It will be because you built a system that made change easier to sustain.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||