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Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Little Happier: A Truth About Human Nature, Illustrated by a Change in Basketball Rules

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project

Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.713K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2025

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Through my "Operation Knicks Knowledge" experiment, I've discovered that basketball rules evolve constantly—and one particular change reveals a profound truth about human nature. We manage what we monitor, and we encourage what we reward.

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Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Gretz, you and I both love Whole Foods Market, and as the weather gets warmer, we want to have some lighter meals.

0:08.3

Whole Foods Market has what you're looking for with great everyday prices.

0:13.2

At Whole Foods Market, you can save every day.

0:15.5

Look for the yellow low-price signs that help you save money without compromising the quality you expect from Whole Foods

0:21.2

market. Find them with their responsibly farmed Atlantic salmon, no antibiotics ever ground beef,

0:27.3

and boneless, skinless chicken breasts, plus more throughout the store. Yellow really means savings

0:32.1

at Whole Food Market because their sale signs are also yellow. So basically, whenever you see yellow,

0:37.3

you know you're saving

0:38.1

money. Save on the best of spring with great everyday prices at Whole Foods Market.

0:45.3

Lemonada.

0:50.0

I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is a little happier. I've talked about my operation, Nix Knowledge, where I've decided to take a deep interest in New York City's basketball team, the Nix.

1:02.5

I wanted to see if I could make myself interested in a subject.

1:07.1

And I have.

1:09.0

As I've been learning more about basketball, I've been struck by the fact that the

1:13.0

rules change over time. Basketball was invented in 1891, but the rules have evolved and continue to

1:20.8

evolve. For example, now that I'm paying attention to the Knicks, I'm interested in the ongoing

1:26.5

debate about whether the

1:27.8

scoring of the three-point field goal should change as a way to make the game more exciting.

1:33.9

One decades-old rule change was particularly interesting to me because it reflects a deep

1:40.0

insight into human nature. That truth is, we manage what we monitor. So if something

1:48.6

matters to us, we should find a way to monitor it, or else it may get ignored or discounted.

1:55.7

In the 1940s, decades after basketball was invented, its rules were changed to recognize the assist.

...

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