🧠 15 Jedi-level mind tricks for every awkward social situation

How to win any social interaction, without being weird about it.

They say when you're on a tightrope (we try to keep it relatable for you), the trick isn’t to think don’t fall, don’t fall, but to think stay up, stay up. Your brain prefers being told what to do rather than what to avoid. The same principle applies to social interactions.

Unless you live in a mountain cabin with WiFi and zero human contact, you’ve probably been caught in the minefield that is... people. Talking to them. Dealing with them. Trying not to ruin dinner with them. Luckily, Redditors have shared their best psychological “cheat codes” for every social curveball: diffusing anger, steering small talk, or surviving a “where should we eat?” debate.

As Erik Barnes reports, these 15 tricks don’t make you manipulative, they just make you a little smoother. From “positive gossip” to hiccup mind hacks, these are the kind of life upgrades that’ll make every interaction feel just a bit more in your control.

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And what did we learn?

Yesterday we explored how Gen Alpha is taking generational traditions in a new direction, which got me thinking about my childhood Friday nights… and yours! So I asked what Friday night looked like when you were a kid. Over a third of GOOD readers related most to a good old Friday night brawl over that last VHS of the hot new movie.

• Fighting over which VHS to rent before Blockbuster closed (35.7%)

• Calling the radio to record my favorite song on tape (32.1%)

• Scrolling TikTok and gaming on Discord at the same time (21.4%)

• Posting my popcorn pic before the midnight movie (10.7%)

Reader LeanneBailey was patient. Patience is a virtue, but as a strategy… it’s lacking. “I would wait around to see if someone maybe possibly just dropped off that movie I really wanted to see. Seldom did I get lucky.“

❓ The only right answer to the worst interview question

The correct answer is not “I respond poorly to stupid questions like that.”

It's 2025, and the modern job search is a slogging nightmare. You send 100 resumes into the void, 90 get no reply, seven get robo-rejected instantly, two get a handcrafted rejection two months later, and one... one if you're lucky... receives an interview. You study, you prep, you dress nicely, and you brace yourself. And then they ask.

"What is your greatest weakness?"

It feels like the job interview equivalent of “Do you know why I pulled you over?” The sort of question that has no correct answer.

In this story by Ryan Reed, three hiring experts break down how to turn that anxiety bomb into a showcase for your growth, self-awareness, and actual humanity. The old “I care too much” trick? Toss it. Oversharing your fatal flaw? Please don’t.

Instead, think of it as your origin story. One expert even provides a 3-step script to turn cringe into connection and potentially land the job.

🧠 The physicist who proved smart people are the easiest to fool

The irony of intelligence is what happens when you start to expect it.

Smart people are right more often. That’s basically the definition. The smarter they are, the more it happens. Lather, rinse, overconfidence. And since humans are experts at noticing patterns, they start to expect it. That’s when things get dangerous.

Richard Feynman was a genius who knew how dangerous genius could be. Nobel Prize winner. Quantum physics trailblazer. Challenger disaster whistleblower. And, as Erik Barnes reports, a relentless critic of intellectual ego.

Feynman believed intelligence wasn’t the superpower we think it is, because the moment you trust it too much, it starts to backfire. Overconfidence. Pride. Assumptions that go untested. Smarts become a trap.

His whole philosophy? Ask more questions. Doubt the easy answers. Never assume you're the smartest one in the room.

Head south from my house about a mile, hang a left on Huntington, stop at Target, and buy some shoes. Boom, history made. You just got your kicks on Route 66.

99 years ago today, November 11, 1926, Route 66 stitched together small towns and big dreams. It carried Dust Bowl migrants west, inspired Steinbeck’s “Mother Road,” and set the soundtrack with Bobby Troup’s “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.” Neon diners, wigwam motels, and mom-and-pop shops flourished along its bends. And even after it was decommissioned in 1985, fans kept it alive: Historic Route 66 signs, restored neon, and roadside museums now guide travelers along most of the original pavement.

You can still drive it. Start in L.A., pass San Bernardino’s citrus groves, Amboy’s ghostly neon, Oatman’s wild burros, Arizona’s Painted Desert, New Mexico’s adobe sunsets, Cadillac Ranch in Texas, and the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma. Zip through Kansas, cross the Mississippi, cruise Illinois’ red bricks, and 2,448 miles later, land in downtown Chicago. It’s something dreamy to consider on every trip to Target.

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💬 From the group text…

Yeah… I had lessons in elementary school about not getting into cars with strangers, and now I’m letting a computer find strangers to come to my house and take me to the store, so this track…

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