Transcript
Gretchen Rubin (0:00)
Gretchen we always on this podcast talk about the importance of getting good sleep and part of good sleep is a great pillow. There are side sleepers, back sleepers, even starfishes. I'm a side sleeper. And Gretchen, I got a pillow from Coop Sleep Goods that is so perfect for me. I went from using like two pillows together that were not quite right to using my One Coop pillow which is perfect. I love it.
Jamie Rubin (0:28)
Visit coopsleepgoods.com happier to get 20% off your first order. That's C-O-O-P sleepgoods.com happier.
Gretchen Rubin (0:40)
Lemonade.
Jamie Rubin (0:45)
I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier I've talked about my operation Knicks Knowledge, where I've decided to take a deep interest in New York City's basketball team, the Knicks. I wanted to see if I could make myself get interested in a subject, and I have. Going to Knicks games have led me to many questions, observations, and many trains of thought that I would never otherwise have had. For instance, I grew curious about jersey numbers. Did players get to choose their own numbers? I looked it up and the answer is yes, within certain guidelines and restrictions. Interesting. Then, at a game in Madison Square Garden where the Knicks played the Denver Nuggets, I saw that Nuggets player Christian Braun's jersey number was 0. The fact that players could choose the number 0 for their jersey absolutely astonished me. First of all, I was surprised that zero was considered a number for the purposes of basketball jerseys. This policy actually demonstrates an extraordinarily sophisticated understanding of numbers. The fact is, humankind was very slow to recognize the idea that zero could be a number. How could nothing be something? The concept of zero required a radical shift from counting concrete things to manipulating abstract symbols. While ancient traders could easily grasp owing someone three coins or having five goats, they didn't have the concept of zero coins or starting from zero. This mental hurdle explains why many civilizations, such as the Romans, with their elaborate numerical system, never developed a symbol for zero. And when we teach numbers to little kids, we start with one, not with zero. Zero comes later. So I felt like a child or an ancient Roman when I said to my husband Jamie, zero isn't a real number. It's nothing. How could zero be a jersey number? Not only that, given that players and people generally are often very superstitious, being identified as zero or nothing struck me as something many people would consider unlucky. But despite my reservations, I learned that many players choose to wear the number zero for various reasons. For instance, it's unusual. That is why some players prefer it. Others choose it because a zero also looks like the letter O, which can be significant for them. Some use it to signal I'll show you to people who said they'd never amount to anything. Apparently Christian Braun chose zero because that was the number he wore in high school. He couldn't use the number he wore in college, number two, because the Nuggets had required number two. I don't know why he chose zero in high school. Because I was new to the game of basketball. I noticed this peculiarity and was curious about it. My husband, Jamie, who has followed basketball his whole life, had never noticed anything unusual about the choice of zero for a jersey. One of my secrets of adulthood is it's easier to notice the exceptional than the familiar, so to observe the obvious requires intense attention. Sometimes we see things more clearly when they're unfamiliar, because nothing is obvious or taken for granted. If you're intrigued by my secrets of adulthood, go to happiercast.com secrets and and you can learn more about my new book, How I Loved Writing that Book. I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier. From the Onward project.