Measure6 minFeatured
The NFL Combine Effect
A test built to measure athletes quietly rewrote how they train.
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The Science of Improvement
The Science of Improvement is where MIMR gets curious out loud — a running collection of essays on the science of measurement, recovery, and human performance. Half laboratory notebook, half magazine.
Showing 28 articles
Reward5 minFeatured
The Car Wash Card
Why a head start makes people more likely to finish, and why every MIMR account starts with money in it.
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Improve5 minFeaturedNew
An Elite Soldier Factory?
A few simple words, planted in the right ears.
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Improve5 minNew
That's It, You're Grounded!
The science of earthing, what the experiments actually show, and the bigger question it raises: what else might the Earth be doing for us?
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Improve5 minNew
Hum, Sigh, Yes, Repeat
One sound. One breath. One word. The surprising science of tiny improvements.
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Measure5 minNew
Dodgeball at Your Office: 275 Interruptions a Day
Interruptions, AI anxiety, and rising expectations are turning workplaces into pressure cookers. The scary part is how well they seem to be working.
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Psychology6 minNew
Opera Shampoo: Can Being Ridiculous Improve Your Memory?
Why singing about shampooing your hair might help you remember that you actually did it.
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Improve5 minNew
GLP-1s Open the Door. Fitness Walks Through It.
Weight-loss medications are a genuine breakthrough. Here's why they work even better with a partner.
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Psychology5 minNew
The Golfers Who Putted Better While Distracted
The surprising science of why your brain sometimes performs better when you get out of its way.
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Improve4 minNew
Brain Fog or Antivirus Software?
Why your mind sometimes feels like an old laptop, and how to close the programs running in the background.
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Measure4 minNew
The Horse Race Bettors Who Knew Too Much
Expert horse handicappers were given more and more information. Their confidence soared. Their accuracy didn't move.
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Measure4 minNew
The Faster Horse Problem
Why humans are surprisingly bad at imagining what would make their lives better.
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Improve4 minNew
The Puzzle You Can't Put Down
The psychology of unfinished business, and why a problem you almost know how to solve is so hard to walk away from.
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Improve4 minNew
Five Water Bottles
Why your environment may matter more than your willpower.
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Psychology5 minNew
Lucky on Purpose
A psychologist spent a decade studying lucky and unlucky people. The difference wasn't chance. It was what they noticed.
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Psychology5 minNew
The High-Five Effect
What Kevin Garnett knew about free throws, and what one NBA study suggests about the small signals that make teams better.
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Psychology5 minNew
A Tale of Two Milkshakes
Same shake. Same calories. Different hormonal response. What two small experiments reveal about how expectations shape the body.
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Reward5 minNew
Happiness Has a Three-Month Memory
The first paycheck after a raise feels amazing. A season later, it's just your paycheck. Here's why, and why MIMR runs in 90-day cycles.
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Improve5 minNew
The Hardest Domino Is the First One
One small healthy choice can make the next one easier. The trick is getting the first one to fall.
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Improve5 min
The Math Test That Changed How We See Stress
Researchers gave anxious students one short lesson before an exam. It didn’t calm them down. It changed what their racing hearts meant.
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Measure6 min
Every Score Gets Gamed. Including Ours.
Why every scoring system invites gaming, and what we’re doing about it.
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Reward5 min
When Paying People Makes Them Care Less
What happens to motivation when you reward people for something they already enjoy.
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Measure4 min
Why We Floss the Week Before the Dentist
What happens to our behavior when we know a measurement is coming, and why your dentist can tell.
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Educate/Explain5 min
The Runners Who Trained Less and Got Fitter
A perfectly steady heartbeat is a bad sign. Here’s what heart rate variability actually measures.
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Reward5 min
Your Health Insurance Is a WWII Accident
How workplace perks evolved from a wartime compromise into a toolkit for human performance.
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Improve5 min
The Fitness Number Most Linked to Longevity
Why the size of your aerobic engine matters more than how fast it’s running right now.
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Measure4 min
Why a Third of Feedback Makes People Worse
Two people can take the exact same measurement. What matters is why they’re taking it.
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Improve4 min
Why Does Your Bladder Listen to Running Water?
How classical conditioning turns a sound into a reflex, and how to build cues on purpose.
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