Good People

Regret, hindsight, and the one thing most people wish they’d done differently

Regret has a way of sneaking up on you. Galloway says this one is everywhere and surprisingly fixable.

Scott Galloway is an NYU professor, an entrepreneur, a media personality, and he’s 60. It’s this last detail that gives him insight into regret, and in a recent podcast interview, he discussed the most common regret of all and how to escape it.

In this story by Mark Wales, Galloway shares the #1 reported regret. Unlike common wistful wishes like “I should have kissed her” or “why didn’t I buy Apple stock?!”, the regret most people feel can be fixed retroactively. 

And last week?

The internet has reshaped how courtships begin, and young men just aren’t asking women for their numbers anymore. I asked GOOD readers what they think the ‘right’ way to get a date is these days, and more than 56% think a simple tweak to the old formula is the way to go.

• Asking for a number is still best. It's clear, easy, and she has the option to lie! (19.4%)

• There are apps for this sort of thing now. Maybe just enjoy your drink. (17.9%)

• Don’t ask for their number. Offer yours. Low pressure, no awkwardness. (56.7%)

• Something else? Tell us what actually works. (6.0%)

Health

If TV taught you CPR, there are some things you should know

Are the life-saving doctors on TV teaching us the wrong moves?

Joey, the famously dim (once Flanderized) friend from Friends, suggested peeing on a jellyfish sting in an infamous scene at the beach. Now millions of people are primed to do just that, despite the fact that it’s bogus advice. (It’s unhygienic, can cause more pain, and will get you a fine for public indecency.)

We are, unfortunately, primed to take advice from TV. In fact, for too many people, TV is where they learned CPR. But new research suggests this might not all be bad. Peeing on a friend’s leg on the beach? Dumb. Jumping in to give chest compressions like you learned on The Office? That may actually be far better than doing nothing at all. In this story, Beth Hoffman explains what TV gets wrong, what it accidentally gets right, and why imperfect CPR on screen might still be saving lives.

Culture | From the Vault

One woman, 18 makeovers, and a world of beauty standards

Artists use Photoshop to share their local ideas of ideal.

What happens when you hand the same photo of one woman to 18 designers around the world and ask them to make her “beautiful”? A project called Perceptions of Perfection did just that, and the results are equal parts fascinating and surreal.

Some edits slimmed her down dramatically. Others added curves, softened features, or completely remixed her hair and makeup. A few even changed her clothes, which wasn’t technically part of the brief, but… points for creativity.

It’s worth noting that the starting photo is of a white woman, which makes the gallery feel narrow. While the project has its limits, it offers a playful glimpse into how other cultures lean into their own ideals of beauty.

So no, this isn’t the final word on “perfection.” But it is a quirky, tech-powered way to see how body image shifts from country to country, and maybe a reminder that there’s no single answer to what makes someone beautiful.

On January 12, 1959, a new label that would reshape the sound of popular music was launched. Songwriter and producer Berry Gordy, part of the writing teams behind “Do You Love Me?” and the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” was tired of labels underpaying when they bothered to pay at all, so 67 years ago today, Tamla Records was launched.

Hoping to build a self-contained hit factory that paid everybody fairly, Gordy took an $800 loan from his family to take a shot at doing things his own way. The result was a label that would shape the sound of popular music for decades. Leveraging his own talents and those of his friends, he created a place where Motown music could flourish. He even went so far as to have an in-house finishing school for his talent, teaching stagecraft, diction, and poise.

Born in 1929, Gordy is 96 today and retired only six years ago. Tamla, the label he created, was recently revived as an imprint within Universal’s Capitol Music Group, focusing on “positive” R&B and hip-hop.

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