AJ Jacobs is a living, breathing experiment. A bestselling author and renowned NYC journalist, his writing combines philosophy, Gonzo journalism, science, humor, and a dash of self-help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is the author of\u00a0The Know-It-All<\/a><\/em>, which documents the year he spent reading the\u00a0Encyclopedia Britannica\u00a0<\/em>from A to Z, uncovering both funny and surprising factoids but also poignant insight into Please enjoy our interview with A.J. Jacobs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n ***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You are known for immersion journalism in which you dedicate yourself to a particular lifestyle or experiment for an extended period of time, such as living Biblically<\/a> for a year or achieving maximal This began because I\u2019d read endless\nbooks and articles about the benefits of gratitude, but wasn\u2019t so grateful\nmyself. So I decided to start a gratitude ritual: A prayer of thanksgiving\nbefore meal. The catch was, prayer doesn\u2019t come easy to me. I\u2019m agnostic. So\ninstead of thanking God, I decided to thank some of the people who helped make\nmy meal possible. I\u2019d say \u201cI\u2019d like to thank the farmer who grew these\ntomatoes. And the cashier at the grocery store who sold me these tomatoes.\u201d And\nso on. And one day, my 10-year-old son told me that my ritual was okay, but\nalso kind of lame. Because the farmer and the cashier weren\u2019t in our apartment.\nHe said if you really care, you should go and thank them in person. I thought:\n\u201cHm. That\u2019s an interesting idea. That\u2019s a book idea!\u201d So I decided to thank all\nthe people in the world who had even the smallest role in making my morning cup\nof coffee (I chose coffee because I love it and need it). And I took it wide.\nBecause I realized we need hundreds of people for every little item in our\nlives. I thanked the barista, the logo designer, the trucker, the highway-pavers,\nthe coffee bean biologists, and on and on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\nsay you are not naturally a grateful person, with a personality closer to Larry\nDavid than Tom Hanks. In what ways did you force yourself to be more grateful?\nWhat advice would you have for anyone trying to be more thankful in their daily\nlife?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think a lot of us are born with a\nstrong Larry David side. In fact, psycholgoists will tell you that humans have\nan innate negative bias. We are very good at noticing what is wrong. If you\nhear a hundred compliments and a single insult, and what do you remember? The\ninsult. This, no doubt, had survival value back when we were cave people. You\nwanted to really focus on the lion, or the poisonous mushroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But in today\u2019s world, it makes life\nexceedingly unpleasant. For me, the key is to really pay attention to the hundreds\nof things that go right every day instead of the three or four that go wrong. I\nfind it helpful to spend a couple of minutes counting up all the things that\nare going right at a particular moment. I press the elevator button an the\nelevator comes. I get in the elevator and it doesn\u2019t plummet to the basement.\nAnd so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nsort of changes did you notice within yourself by being more grateful? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One big change was related to the\nStoic idea of the self-interested case for virtue. The idea that acting badly\nmakes you feel badly. That whoever does wrong, wrongs himself. But when you act\nvirtuously, you get a little burst of happiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So during this project, I\u2019d wake up\nin a grumpy mood, but I\u2019d force myself to call or visit or email folks to thank\nthem for their role in my coffee. Admittedly, some were baffled. They\u2019d say,\n\u201cIs this a pyramid scheme?\u201d But the majority were really pleased to hear from\nme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember I called the woman who\ndoes pest control for the warehouse where my coffee is stored. And I said, \u201cI\nknow this sounds strange, but I want to thank you for keeping the bugs out of\nmy coffee.\u201d And she said, \u201cThat does sound strange. But thank YOU. You made my\nday.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that, in turn, made my day. By\nforcing myself to act in a grateful way, I became less grouchy. Ideally,\ngratitude should be a two-way street. It should give both parties a little\ndopamine boost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In your book you talk about the Stoic concept of memento mori<\/a> (remember that you will die) and even how you have a skull in the corner of your computer as a reminder of your mortality. How has Stoicism impacted your thinking and work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n