reading | wellnessrounds

It’s the middle of the week, which is when I like to share 3 things that caught my attention enough that they are worthy of mentioning to someone else…

How rich is Elon Musk?

Aerial view of MetLife Stadium filled with golf balls; signs read "FIELD FILLED WITH GOLF BALLS!" — AI generated image of a football stadium (almost) filled with golf balls. A trillion golf balls would fill this stadium 28 times (all the way to the brim)

We aren’t designed as human beings to understand what a “trillion” of anything is. Million to billion to trillion sounds like an easy progression, but there is a factor of a THOUSAND between each of those leaps.

If measured in seconds, a million seconds is around 11.5 days, while a billion seconds is 31.7 years. As for a trillion seconds – that’s 31,709 years.

If you stack one dollar bills here’s how high they would reach

1000 1$ bills = 4.3 inches
1 million = 4300 inches = 358 feet = 30 to 35 story tall building
1 billion = 358,510 feet = 6.79 = the height commercial airliners fly
1 trillion = 67,866 miles = 25% of the way to the moon

Or, you could play with this amazing website where you play a game to “spend Elon Musk’s money” to get an idea what a trillion dollars can buy.

BTW, the World Health Organization thinks it would take the equivalent of 36-50 billion US dollars per year to eradicate world hunger by 2030. Elon Musk alone could cover that for 10-14 years with only half of his wealth, leaving him “only” 500 billion dollars. It’s mind boggling (but not at all unrealistic) to think what could happen if all the world’s billionaires took this on together as a goal.

“One of the simplest ways to get an idea of one trillion dollars is to consider the amount in terms of the passage of time. One million seconds is equal to roughly eleven days and twelve hours, and one billion seconds is thirty-two years. One trillion seconds equals thirty-two thousand years.”
Geoff Davis

Theology meets technology

Check out this amazing tool, created by Danyel Fisher. Even if you aren’t a theology nerd, you’ll appreciate the design and the work that went into this.

Winnie the Pooh turns 100

Happy Birthday to the wonderful world created by A.A. Milne, a world that showed children (and grown ups) to a better way to be in the world.

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“I have my friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last week or the week before that Rabbit bumped into me and said ‘Bother!’ The Social Round. Always something going on.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

If you’ve never read these books, you should! If you have a small person in your life, get them a copy and read it out loud to them. You’ll both benefit!

Sir William Osler was probably one of the most prolific, most loved and most respected physicians in American history. Osler is credited with the concept of journal clubs, with being responsible for bringing medical students onto the wards for “clinical clerkships” and for the structure of the modern medical residency. Osler is also famous for quotes about medicine and teaching medicine. But, for this post, I want to focus on something that recently caught my eye … his desk. Osler wrote the first definitive textbook of Internal Medicine in the United States, The Principles and Practice of Medicine. I can only assume that a lot of his writing took place at this desk:

Which made me look at my desk and think about desks in general. There are many of us, particularly in the era of the laptop computer, who use our desks as storage space. But maybe we are missing an opportunity. What if, instead of stacking things on our desks, we actually created a space that made it easy to study, read, think and be creative? Organizing your desk will unquestionably lead to being more productive. But being productive isn’t the only goal. It’s also important to create a space that makes you look forward to spending “non-productive” time thinking, dreaming and being creative.

Organizing a desk.

Keep pens, highlighters, etc that you use in a holder – but only the ones you use. Get rid of the pens that don’t really work, and the ones you don’t like.
Declutter the surface of the desk by hiding electronic wires, filing stacks of papers, etc
Keep a scratch notebook on the desk to replace scraps of paper. Use it for phone messages, ideas, etc.
Keep the surface clear of everything except what you are working on (and put it away when you are done)
Position your computer screen so it’s ergonomic

Personalizing a desk (and the space it lives in)

Make sure you have a great (and very comfortable) chair.
Get a really good light.
Make sure the area is quiet
Keep the area decluttered to decrease visual “stress”
If you listen to music when you work, get good speakers for your computer (or a good sound system)
Put things in the space that motivate you – art, photos, quotes, etc

Tips for an organized desk from Productivity501.com