Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes: This Is the Trait That Most Incompetent Bosses Share This Guy's Backyard Turned Into a 1,300-Foot-Tall Volcano The Brain Boost You Get From Meditation Could Last for Years
Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes:
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/incompetent-boss-traits-a-backyard-volcano-and-meditations-lasting-brain-boost
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi, I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Today, you'll learn about the trait that most incompetent bosses share, a 1,300 foot tall volcano that sprung up in some guy's backyard, and how meditation can boost your brain for several years.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, I think this is probably a loaded question. But have you ever had a bad boss?
CODY GOUGH: I think everyone has had a bad boss.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, they really have.
CODY GOUGH: Although it's been a while. So I'm fortunate in that regard.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's good. Well, research has found the one common trait shared by the most incompetent bosses, and it actually kind of surprised me.
CODY GOUGH: How did researchers even define what makes an incompetent boss?
ASHLEY HAMER: So researchers study something called managerial derailment, which is basically just a fancy term for the dark side of management. And there are a few different categories that you can read all about on curiosity.com. But yeah, there are parameters.
CODY GOUGH: Okay, so this is like a quantifiable thing?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, for sure.
CODY GOUGH: All right.
ASHLEY HAMER: Think of all the different bad bosses you could have. You can have an abusive boss, a micromanager, an overbearing boss. But research says that of all of those, an absent boss is your worst case scenario. This is the boss that basically lets you do whatever you want.
CODY GOUGH: That doesn't sound bad.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, it doesn't sound bad at all. But a 2015 survey identified nine traits that working adults complained about the most from their leaders, and eight out of the nine were absent behaviors. 63% of the employees in the study said that not recognizing employee achievements bothered them the most. And a 2014 study found that being ignored by your boss is even more alienating than being treated poorly.
CODY GOUGH: Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, it's surprising. You would think that an abusive boss, or a boss that's just always on your case, would be the worst. But really, a boss that just doesn't care is the worst of all.
Most of us have bosses, but some of us are bosses. So, if you're afraid you might be the bad boss, here are a few tips from Harvard Business Review. Notice and acknowledge your employees' unique contributions. Have daily interactions with them. Give them public recognition. Proactively ask for feedback from your team. And don't wait for performance reviews to let your employees know how they're doing.
Regular feedback and recognition is what employees really want. Who doesn't want regular feedback? It's great.
CODY GOUGH: I think you're doing a great job.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks, Cody. I think you're doing a swell job, too.
CODY GOUGH: Thanks. We are not each other's boss.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, we're not.
CODY GOUGH: But that's fine. So I've got a fun story for you.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right.
CODY GOUGH: In 1943, a 1,300 foot tall volcano sprung up in the backyard of a Mexican farmer.
ASHLEY HAMER: Just immediately, like an a matter of hours?
CODY GOUGH: It absolutely did.
ASHLEY HAMER: What?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Curiosity keeps its eye on odd events from history, and we love this story. On the afternoon of February 20, 1943, a farmer was making the rounds of his family cornfield, clearing the brush, burning the overgrown shrubbery.
And then, he nearly walks into this small brand new ridge. And lo and behold, suddenly it's a hill as tall as him. And then, there was a tremendous rumbling and a belch of smoke and ash, and he took off running.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, my gosh!
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. So his family had already gone into town to seek safety, because they started hearing it. So they were safe.
But that night, the residents of the village of Parícutin watched as the volcano surged with fiery lava. One farmer described the scene, "red flames of fire rose into the darkened sky, some rising 2600 feet or more into the air, that burst like golden marigolds, and a rain like artificial fire fell to the ground."
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. 24 hours after the first plume of smoke erupted from the Earth, the volcano had grown to 165 feet.
ASHLEY HAMER: 24 hours, and it grew that high?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: So you've got 165 foot volcano, and it didn't finish growing for another nine years when it reached 1,300 feet.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, my gosh.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Sadly, both the town and a nearby city were destroyed, but only three people were killed in the eruption. But weirdly, none of the deaths were caused by lava or smoke. All three were struck by volcanic lightning. What is volcanic lightning?
ASHLEY HAMER: Volcanic lightning comes from a build-up of electrical charge from ash particles rubbing together. And so you'll get lightning storms above volcanoes a lot. It's really weird.
CODY GOUGH: Wow. Anyway, Parícutin is notable because it was one of the first chances scientists had to see the life cycle of a volcano from start to finish. And scientists flocked to the area. And they came in droves, and they teamed up with locals for on the ground expertise. And papers were written about it. And it was a big deal.
It was erupting for nine years straight. And the silver lining is that after the lava destroyed everything around, it did create a whole new tourist attraction. So you can visit today, and you can even visit the steeple of a nearby church that was the only building tall enough to not be completely engulfed.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: And this story is from Mexico, so I wanted to quickly follow up on our story from last week about a dinosaur that I said was called Quetzalcoatlus. We got an email from a listener in Mexico City, a very, very kindly written email, calling out my terrible pronunciation.
ASHLEY HAMER: But it was kind-hearted, right?
CODY GOUGH: Yes. Anyway, the pronunciation is not Quetzalcoatlus. It is closer to Quetzolcoatl.
ASHLEY HAMER: But of course, this week we said Parícutin.
CODY GOUGH: So Parícutin, I did my research. So we're doing our best to pronounce words from other language, but it would be Quetzocoatl.
ASHLEY HAMER: So Cody, do you meditate?
CODY GOUGH: I don't, but you do.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm trying to do it regularly. It makes me feel better. But we write about the effects of meditation whenever Curiosity finds new research, because it's really interesting. And there's big news out of the University of California, Davis.
They've found that the gains you get from practicing meditation could last not just that day, but at least seven years. But if you want to take what their study said, you really have to practice. This news is coming out of The Shamatha Project. It claims to be the most comprehensive study of meditation to date and it's even endorsed by the Dalai Lama.
CODY GOUGH: Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. The project followed 60 experienced meditators when they attended two intensive meditation retreats in Colorado in 2007. These were really intense. They were three months long. They included specific instruction in sustained attention meditation techniques, which are pretty intense. And the participants would join in group meditations twice a day, and do their own solo practice six hours a day.
CODY GOUGH: Solo practice six hours a day plus two group meditations?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
CODY GOUGH: Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. The main goal of the research was to see what effect sustained attention meditation had on the meditator's ability to sustain their attention.
They were tested using computer tasks to see if the effects held after six months, a year, and finally seven years later. Immediately after the study, the meditators were not only better able to sustain their attention, but they also showed gains in psychological well-being and in their ability to cope with stress.
CODY GOUGH: Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: And then when they were tested seven years later, the researchers found that the attention gains they demonstrated directly after the retreat were still there, at least partly. The biggest effects were seen in older people, who are more diligent about their meditation practice in the years since. And those people didn't show as much age related decline in their attention as those who practice less.
Also, there's some drawbacks to the study. There's the fact that people who can afford to escape from life for three months for a meditation retreat probably live at a higher socio-economic status, which makes it hard to say whether these effects apply to the general population. So take it with a grain of salt. So it's a lot of meditation, and it's probably people with more money.
CODY GOUGH: Sure.
ASHLEY HAMER: But it's still hopeful. And the more scientists study this, the more we'll know about its benefits. So I think this is a win.
CODY GOUGH: Good first step.
ASHLEY HAMER: And you can definitely bet we'll keep writing about meditation research on curiosity.com.
CODY GOUGH: Sweet.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for "The Curiosity Daily," and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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ANNOUNCER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.