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A little laziness might be good for the planet
Your rake can take a break. Your brain, meanwhile, might surprise you.
Greg Sullivan
November 03, 2026 • Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes
In partnership with
“Autumn leaves don't fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”
― Delia Owens
Sometimes the world gets a little more interesting when we question the things we've always taken for granted. Today, Manjot Kaur Sidhu challenges our annual obsession with tidy lawns, we're taking a peek at what kids eat for lunch halfway around the world, and we're looking for the little clues that might reveal an extraordinary mind. A few pleasant surprises for your Tuesday.
Science
It’s OK to leave the leaves.
Every fall, the neighborhood symphony begins. Leaf blowers roar, rakes scrape, and otherwise reasonable adults wage an all-out war against leaves having the audacity to fall on the ground. Nature makes a mess, and we are honor-bound to clean it up… right?
Well, here's some excellent news for anyone who'd rather spend Saturday on the couch: Your laziness might actually be a virtue.
As horticulture researcher Manjot Kaur Sidhu explains, those piles of fallen leaves aren't just clutter. They're tiny apartment complexes for creatures trying to make it through winter. And every time we fire up the leaf blower, we're basically evicting the tenants.
Better still, those leaves are doing some surprisingly useful work for your yard, the kind of work people spend actual money trying to accomplish. So before you embark on another weekend of yard work, you might want to find out which chores Mother Nature would prefer you skipped.
This image of an idyllic forest comes all the way from Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, by way of GOOD reader Diane Boone. It lifts my heart to know that places like this really exist in the world. What an amazing composition and color palette.
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Let’s Have an Honest Conversation About Breasts
Breasts are among the most talked about and medically researched parts of the human body, yet many of us are embarrassed to discuss our breast health openly.
Allure Perspectives, a new podcast hosted by Allure editor-in-chief Jessica Cruel, spends its first season exploring how breasts intersect with beauty, health, identity, sexuality, and culture. Episodes feature Olivia Munn on the test she says to take even if your mammogram is clear, sex educator Ericka Hart on reclaiming her body after breast cancer, and a Beverly Hills surgeon on why GLP-1s are driving a surge in breast lifts. All episodes available now.
What's your relationship with fall yard work?When the leaves start falling, what's your move? |
Previous Results
In yesterday's issue, we took a trip down the real Oregon Trail, but our readers had another journey on their minds: the annual clock change.
We asked: We've changed the clocks again. How are you feeling? A whopping 71.6% would like us to stop changing the clocks altogether. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me. We can all be sleepy curmudgeons together!
Wonderful. I love an early sunset. (10.6%)
Absolutely robbed of my afternoon. (6.7%)
Still confused about what time it is. (11.1%)
Can we please stop changing the clocks? (71.6%)
GOOD reader Lynx Evaders (great name!) had my favorite suggestion. “Meet in the middle and stop it!”
Nutrition | Courtesy of Upworthy
 | ||
Kids in South Korea sometimes get served lobster tails with school lunch. | ||
Photos of school lunch tray in South Korea sparks debate about how American kids eat | ||
It sure has adults’ mouths watering, though. | ||
By Evan Porter | ||
School lunch in the United States has a complicated history. While many of us who grew up in the 80s or 90s are nostalgic for some of the menu items we remember fondly (rectangle pizza, anyone?), some of the serving choices were bizarre. We really grew up with someone handing us a tray of pizza, French fries, chocolate milk, and soggy green beans every morning at 10:30 a.m. | ||
The offerings have improved somewhat over the years, but everything’s still so… beige. The main choices are typically pizza, chicken nuggets, or some form of questionable ground beef like burgers or meatloaf. Some people are stunned when they find out that school lunches from around the world can look very different. | ||
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Exploration
I mean, I already know you’re a genius. You’re here, but still…
Somewhere between admitting you don't have all the answers and losing an afternoon to blissful, productive nothing, you might be racking up genius points without knowing it. As Mark Wales explains, the tells psychologists flag aren't about crunching numbers. They're the softer stuff: asking better questions than you answer, spotting patterns other people miss, and actually listening instead of waiting for your turn to talk.
Then there's the one nobody expects: a good sense of humor is a legitimate cognitive flex. Add quiet reflection, an openness to changing your mind, and a comfort with saying "I don't know," and you've got a portrait of intelligence that has nothing to do with report cards. If you've ever wondered whether your quirks say something deeper, the science suggests they might.
The full list runs ten deep, and there's a good chance you'll spot yourself in more of them than you might expect.
On November 3, 1900, America's first major automobile show opened at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Thousands turned out to marvel at the horseless carriages, which ran on everything from gasoline to steam to electricity. In fact, electric and steam-powered cars were more popular than their noisy gasoline counterparts. The future of driving was still very much up for grabs.
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Until tomorrow, let laziness linger and leave the leaves lying.