Substance for the Eagle

What do I want? Enough time to think deeply and long about things that matter. Freedom from banality, the tyranny of the inconsequential.

Came across this study about how people with more substantive conversations and less smalltalk are happier. Then the scientists said the next step is to see if increasing the number of substantive conversations would affect happiness.

The skeptical scientist in me flashes the "correlation is not causation" light. And how do you discount the placebo effect? You could have the control group spout empty pomo litcrit buzzwords maybe.

PS, Food for The Eagle, Adam Savage's speech upon receiving a Harvard humanist lifetime achievement award. With nerds, it keeps coming back to the eating of brains. :\