Even though it's sometimes stressful to have to give gifts, turns out that it's important to happiness.

I’ve always been fascinated by gift exchange – in particular, potlatch. It was my preoccupation with potlatch that eventually led me to write Profane Waste.
But although I’m intellectually interested in the impulse toward gift-giving, I don’t like gift-giving much, myself.
Even though it's sometimes stressful to have to give gifts, turns out that it's important to happiness.

Holiday Gifting: 14 Ways to Give More Meaning and Less Stuff

It's the time of year when gift-giving is on everyone's mind. I don't know about you, but it drives me nuts to give and receive so much meaningless stuff, just out of tradition.
14 Ways to Give More Meaning and Less Stuff

Google Zeitgeist 2007

We're bidding adieu to 2007 with a look back at the breaking news, the big events and the must-have gadgets that captivated us this year (give or take a few weeks; we compile this list by early December). To get a glimpse of what's been on our collective consciousness, we mined billions of search queries to discover what sorts of things rose to the top. We encourage you to check out our findings to see if you, too, reflect the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times.
Google Zeitgeist 2007

Six Tech Predictions for 2008

It’s only a matter of days until 2008, and next year promises to bring some significant changes that will affect web workers. In this post are six predictions that may affect you next year, in some cases possibly profoundly.
Six Tech Predictions for 2008

Best Of 2007: Lifehacker's 2007 Software Superlatives

Who had the Most Obnoxious Icon, Best Splash Screen, and Best Easter Egg of the Year? Find out after the jump, where we'll also hand out our Most Likely to Make You Downgrade and Most Likely to Turn Completely Evil honors.
Best Of 2007: Lifehacker's 2007 Software Superlatives

Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary

Every quarter, a range of entries in OED Online will be replaced by updated versions produced by the OED's revision programme. New entries will also be added across the alphabet.
Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary

Sellout Songs

The Moby Quotient, generated by the formula below, determines the degree to which artists besmirch their reputations when they lend their music to hawk products or companies.
Sellout Songs

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

The Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate (RC) is now available to the public. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 contains changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several new technologies. SP1 also addresses some management, deployment, and support challenges.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1

6 Simple Steps to Achieve Laser-Like Focus

Does focus elude you? Do you multi-task at the cost of focusing on your more important projects? Have you ever wished that you could have laser-like focus? Ever thought, "Hmm, I wish I could just take a pill that would help me focus." Well, as we all know, there is medicine for this type of need. But I think even people who take focus-enhancing medicine will attest that unless you have a good process and discipline, you're still not going to have great success with just a pill.
6 Simple Steps to Achieve Laser-Like Focus

11 Tips for Nuking Laziness Without Becoming a Workaholic

Rest is important for productivity. Trying to work straight without recovering your energies leads to a wandering attention, procrastination and, in extreme cases, death. But when does “recovering your energies” just become an excuse to waste time? How do you draw the line between constructive rest and laziness?
11 Tips for Nuking Laziness Without Becoming a Workaholic

Zoho Tackles Powerpoint With Zoho Show

The folks at Zoho just don’t seem to get tired: they announce new features, products and services for their online office suite on an almost weekly basis, which is what we usually expect from Google. This time, they’ve launched a new version of Zoho Show, an online tool for creating presentations, which we can most easily describe as the online version of Microsoft’s Powerpoint.
Zoho Tackles Powerpoint With Zoho Show

Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer?

A quiz--Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer?
I love a good self-diagnosis quiz. What kind of clutterer are you? Are you organized or disorganized? Are you at risk for dropping out of your exercise program?
Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer?

Why pregnant women don't fall over

Women do not tip over during pregnancy because their spines are built differently from men's – and have been ever since our ancestors began walking upright. The difference allows a pregnant woman to lean backward to counterbalance the weight of her developing fetus.
Why pregnant women don't fall over

7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

The brain isn’t a flawless piece of machinery. Although it is powerful and comes in an easy to carry container, it has it’s weaknesses. A field in psychology which studies these errors, known as biases. Although you can’t upgrade your mental hardware, noticing these biases can clue you into possible mistakes.
7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

Earth From Above

French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand's beautiful images of the planet have become a coffee table favorite across the world. Today we are excited to present a new Google Earth layer of nearly 500 of his images, many taken from hot air balloons and all taken from above the earth.
Earth From Above

3 Riddles

How are these three phenomena possible, and how could they be reproduced?
3 Riddles

Lifehacker Gift Guide 2007

It's not easy finding the right gift for everyone on your list, especially if you've got a lot of people to buy for, so today we're taking a look at gifts small and large—from under $10 to the over $50 set—perfect for the life-hacking loved one on your list (even if that's you).
Lifehacker Gift Guide 2007

Why Are You Reading All That News?

You’re feeling stress about your RSS feeds? Talk about self-created problems. The real solution to managing RSS feeds is to stop reading RSS feeds. It’s simple … when a purely optional “convenience” technology is causing stress, it’s time to re-evaluate at a pretty fundamental level.
Why Are You Reading All That News?

Sleep, Attention, and Memory: Not (Maybe) What You Thought

Most of us can remember at least one occasion on which we sat in class, half asleep, trying to pay attention and learn what we were being taught – to no avail. Why is this?
Sleep, Attention, and Memory: Not (Maybe) What You Thought

Reminders as Effective as Trainers at Exercise Enforcement

Find yourself falling behind on your fitness goals? A reminder system can be just as helpful as having a personal trainer to report to. That's according to researchers at Stanford University, where a study found that a group of exercisers who received reminder phone calls exercised an average of nearly 40 minutes per week more than those who were left to their own willpower.
Reminders as Effective as Trainers at Exercise Enforcement