As I was reading about cognitive effort, or "mental labor," to write this post, I couldn’t help but think of the time I spent two weeks trying my hand at “speed-cubing,” or solving a Rubik’s cube as ...

Imagine two people, both working hard to start new businesses. Ultimately, each fails to get their companies off the ground. One, far from discouraged, immediately climbs back on a new startup horse.

One of them immediately launched another startup. The other vowed to never test the startup waters again, a reaction that objectively makes sense. All that effort, and no reward? No thanks. Plus, ...