Sometimes, life isn’t as good as it could be. Don’t let this happen to you. Certified lifestyle enhancement theorist Kevin Nguyen offers a few quick-and-dirty tips guaranteed to make you feel great about yourself.

Can we treat books, comics, CDs, movies, or videogames as commodities? Nick Martens literally examines the monetary value of cultural items by breaking down item price by hour of usage.

Getting information is quick and easy on the web, but at what cost? Jordan Barber, known as “The 20-year-old Thomas Friedman” in some circles, examines the downside of the shift away from labor-intensive library research.

Musicians, it seems, are not like a fine wine. How often do they get better with age? Troubled by this distressing phenomenon, Jeff Merrion tries to make sense of the inevitable mediocrity that accompanies aging.