Culture

He realized a woman was running from him, then he asked what men should do differently

An awkward moment on a trail turned into a revealing conversation about fear, empathy, and moving through public space with more awareness.

One night, long ago, I was leaving a show to hit an ATM when I noticed a woman ahead of me in the crosswalk. The signal started blinking, so, wanting to beat the light, I broke into a jog. She grabbed her purse and ran. Young, dumb, and oblivious, I looked over my shoulder to see what she was running from, but there was nothing there. She was running from me.

That was the moment I realized something uncomfortable but important: I knew I was harmless, but she had no way to know that. I didn’t have social media to process that moment, but a man on Reddit recently found himself in almost the exact same situation. As Erik Barnes explains, what followed was a surprisingly thoughtful exchange about how men can move through public space with a little more awareness.

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Advice

The viral 5-4-3-2-1 rule might save overpackers from themselves

Alison Lumbatis has a simple rule for anyone who treats a three-day trip like an expedition across hostile terrain.

The strange mix of bliss and low-grade panic that comes with packing for a trip has a way of making otherwise reasonable people completely lose it. Going to a nice hotel in a perfectly functional city? Obviously, you will need four shirts, three pairs of underwear, and two pairs of socks a day. That is just prudent. Now move the cat out of the suitcase and keep spiraling.

Alison Lumbatis says the answer is not stuffing your entire closet into a roller bag and sitting on it until it zips. In this story by Mark Wales, we get a viral formula for bringing less, wearing more of what you pack, and avoiding that familiar post-trip sham of unpacking item after item you never even touched.

Previous Results

We had tips for keeping rude people from ruining your good vibes yesterday. I wanted to know which rude character from film or TV is your favorite. About 40% of GOOD readers pinned the title on Simon Cowell. So… congrats, Simon? I guess?

• Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada (15.7%)

• Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development (6.5%)

• Dr. House from House (22.2%)

• Simon Cowell as himself in anything (39.8%)

GOOD reader G Nelson was among those who wrote in Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm! How could I have missed him? Top-tier rude character for sure.

Science | From the Vault

ADHD, daydreaming, and the genius of getting distracted

If ADHD is your superpower, mind-wandering might be your cape. And even if it’s not, it might still help you fly.

If, as our sister publication Upworthy reports, thinking is letting your mind walk, then new research shows that the ADHD habit of zoning out might be like letting your mind off the leash.

Two new studies presented by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (talk about a nightmare spelling bee word!) suggest that “deliberate mind wandering”, described as consciously allowing your thoughts to drift, can unlock next-level creativity. Though the research focused on people with ADHD traits, the underlying idea may benefit many of us.

But even the spontaneous kind (yes, the “oops I spaced out during that email” kind) has perks. Creative thinking, problem-solving, and emotional processing all get a boost when your brain is allowed to roam.

As Erik Barnes reports, the big idea isn’t to fight distraction but to schedule it. Daydreaming on purpose could be the creative hack your busy brain’s been waiting for.

On March 11th, 1989, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal at CERN that became the World Wide Web. He didn’t invent the internet itself, that already existed, but he invented the system that made it easy for ordinary people to use: web pages, links, URLs, and the basic rules for browsers and servers to talk to each other.

Before the Web, the online world was fragmented and clunky. People used email, file transfers, bulletin boards, and text-based systems like Usenet or Gopher, but information lived in separate silos and often required technical know-how to access.

Berners-Lee’s big idea was simple and revolutionary: any document could link to any other document, anywhere. That turned the internet from a specialist tool into a global information space.

We still feel that ripple every day. Clicking links, reading articles, shopping online, using web apps, sharing URLs, and even working remotely all trace back to that 1989 proposal. It began as a practical fix for researchers trying to share information and became the foundation for how the modern world communicates. 

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💬 From the group text…

Happy 8th birthday to Dootie the gym dog, who is equal measure menace and inspiration!

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