1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations.  On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

Sitting in traffic stinks.

The research backs up what we all know to be true: “Our study shows that the longer people spend commuting in cars, the worse their … continue reading

1: “If it bleeds, it leads,” is the old adage regarding newspaper headlines.

And, it’s more true than ever today.

Yesterday, we looked at the data regarding deaths due to terrorism.

“Though terrorism poses a minuscule danger compared with other risks, it creates outsize panic and hysteria because that is what it is designed to do,” Steven Pinker writes in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and … continue reading

1: “We are living in the safest time in history,” best-selling author and Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker writes.

And he understands the “incredulity” these words evoke.

“In recent years, highly publicized terrorist attacks and rampage killings have set the world on edge and fostered an illusion that we live in newly dangerous times,” he notes.  

“In 2016, a majority of Americans named terrorism as the most important issue facing the … continue reading

1: The short answer: No.

In fact, far from it.  According to the data, the opposite is true: We live in the safest time ever. 

In prior RiseWithDrews, we’ve celebrated the dramatic decline in violent deaths, including homicide, automobile accident, plane crash, accidental deaths due to falls, drownings, fire, ], and death resulting from workplace accidents.

But what about so-called “Acts of God,” Steven Pinker asks in Enlightenment … continue reading

1: Headlines regularly lament the decline in the number of manufacturing jobs.

“With the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, many social critics have expressed nostalgia for the era of factories, mines, and mills,” Steven Pinker writes in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

“[P]robably because they never worked in one,” he notes.

There is, however, powerful good news regarding workplace safety.

In … continue reading

1: “Let’s say our starting point is 1 and our goal is 30, but we only get to 22,” Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in The Gap and The Gain: The High Achiever’s Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success.

If we measure ourselves against our goal of 30, we are 8 short. 

If this is where we choose to focus, we are in the GAP. 

When we measure … continue reading

1: Compared with our ancestors, we are significantly less likely to die by homicide, automobile accident, plane crash, a fall, or in a fire.

So far this week, we’ve examined multiple areas with much to celebrate.

There is, however, one area of accidental death where the news is not good: Poison (solid or liquid).

Because this category includes drug overdoses.

2: 98 percent of the “poison” deaths are … continue reading

1: “Since 1980, about 650,000 Americans have lived who would have died if traffic death rates had remained the same,” Steven Pinker writes in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

Automobile deaths are down twenty-four-fold since the numbers were tabulated for the first time in 1921. Which is “not even the full story,” he writes, “since for every person who died there were others who … continue reading

1: Many people believe that we live in the worst of times and that things continue to get worse.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, Steven Pinker writes in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

How do we know this is true? 

Data.

In prior RiseWithDrews, we’ve looked at a number of incredible trends: the mind-boggling uptick in prosperity, the dramatic decline … continue reading