Giving Makes You Rich

Fascinating article in Conde Nast's Portfolio magazine on how people who give more actually make more. (Correlated in that direction, and adjusted for most of the arguments you would make for why this can't be true.) Timely, too, as fall seems to by "charity giving time" in the Brumfield household. (Although it's better than December 30th, when we realize that we haven't met our yearly goals for giving and scatter money around the Internet without much targeted purpose or thought.)

How can this be? Is it a statistical anomaly—or even a metaphysical phenomenon? While the link between giving and prosperity is not as mechanistic as returns on municipal bonds, there are some very earthbound explanations for it. Psychologists and neuroscientists have identified several ways that giving makes us more effective and successful. For example, new research from the University of Oregon finds that charity stimulates parts of the brain called the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens, which are associated with meeting basic needs such as food and shelter—suggesting to the researchers that our brains know that giving is good for us. Experiments have also found that people are elevated by others into positions of leadership after they are witnessed behaving charitably.

I think engendering gratitude makes you a "better" person in a lot of ways (you spend less, you're more gracious, and less competitive), and perhaps that helps your earning potential.

Hat tip to The Happiness Project Blog, one of my favorites.

Victoria Magazine Returns

I've complained before that all my favorite magazines seem to go out of business... However I'm happy to share that Victoria Magazine is back!

How it's back is even more interesting. A company called Hoffman Media has a partnership with Hearst (the original publisher) to publish the magazine. According to the press release, under the terms of the agreement, Hoffman will handle all editorial, production, distribution and advertising for Victoria. Hearst will contribute the Victoria trademark, copyright, URL (www.victoriamag.com), subscription database, and access to historical content of both editorial and art.

Interesting. Smart. I just hope they hire Nancy Lindemeyer, the original editor, for some role (even just contributor). She was the heart and soul of Victoria.

My new subscription form came the day after I had read one of my beloved back issues. If you want to understand why Victoria was so wonderful, I direct you to this blog post and the ensuing comments -- they could have been writen by yours truly, if I was a better writer.

If you are interested in the business story of Victoria, I direct you here. Very interesting.