Culture

The 5-4-3-2-1 trick that could cure your chronic overpacking

One simple formula, fewer suitcase regrets.

I am a chronic overpacker. Three days away? Better bring seven shirts, four pairs of shoes, and a jacket suitable for an unexpected expedition to Antarctica. You never know what might happen. And then, of course, I wear the same two outfits the entire trip.

But there's a wonderfully simple packing trick making the rounds that could save us from ourselves. Lifestyle creator Alison Lumbatis calls it the 5-4-3-2-1 method, and it's essentially a mathematical intervention for people who think "just in case" is a legitimate reason to pack another pair of pants.

As Mark Wales explains in this GOOD story, the formula is surprisingly flexible. The trick isn't just bringing fewer clothes. It's making the clothes you bring work harder. Lumbatis even has a clever little phone hack to make sure you don't spend your vacation staring helplessly into your suitcase.

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Yesterday's Results

In yesterday's issue, we shared the remarkable story of an 11-year-old who saved a stranger's life, which got us thinking about what happens when people find themselves in an emergency.

And we asked: What is the psychological term for people being less likely to help when other people are around? A whopping 84.8% of you got it right! Apparently, this crowd knows exactly why crowds sometimes fail to act.

• The bystander effect (correct): 84.8%

• The spotlight effect: 9.9%

• The halo effect: 4.7%

• The confirmation effect: 0.5%

Pets | Courtesy of Upworthy

Exploration

We finally spoke octopus, and it answered

What happens when a marine biologist tries an animal's own hand signals underwater?

Know, dear reader, that I work hard to bring you an accurate newsletter, and that my research into whether the plural is octopi or octopuses* dragged me down a rabbit hole I am only now clawing out of. Worth it, because the creature at the bottom of that hole turned out to be a genius.

Octopuses have three hearts, blue blood, and skin that changes color in a blink, which is why scientists keep calling them "alien." But the strangest thing marine biologist Dr. Alex Schnell caught on camera for National Geographic's Secrets of the Octopus wasn't the biology. It was a conversation. Filming on the Great Barrier Reef, her crew watched an octopus named Scarlett hunt alongside a coral trout, the fish doing a headstand to flag where a crab was hiding. As Schnell reports in this story by Adam Albright Hanna, a fish with no hands had found a way to gesture. So she wondered: could she gesture too?

* It’s neither! Octopuses is standard English, while octopi comes from mistakenly treating the Greek-derived word as Latin. The true Greek-style plural is octopodes, but unless you want to sound fancy at the aquarium, stick with octopuses.

Who’s a GOOD boy/girl?

Image of the Day has its own lane, but the pet pics keep arriving, and I am not made of stone. So every Friday, I’ll share one reader-submitted photo of a favorite pet. Want yours featured? Send it along.

On October 16, 1923, a 21-year-old animator named Walt Disney signed a contract with New York film distributor Margaret Winkler to produce a series of short films called Alice Comedies. The cartoons featured a real little girl interacting with animated characters, and the deal officially launched the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, founded with Walt's older brother Roy. The operation was modest, starting in a rented space in the back of a Hollywood real estate office.

Mickey Mouse wouldn't arrive for another five years, and the studio's first recurring named cartoon character was actually a cat named Julius. But that small contract launched a company that would help transform animation, filmmaking, television, and theme parks, eventually creating characters and stories loved by generations worldwide.

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