- the Upworthiest
- Posts
- New Post
New Post
Greg Sullivan
June 05, 2025
14 books that rewired people’s brains and completely changed the way they see the world
“Sometimes the best books aren’t bestsellers—they’re just the right words hitting us at the right time.”
In his (often misquoted) 1889 essay "The Decay of Lying: An Observation," Oscar Wilde boldly declares that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” While this question has sparked countless philosophical debates, there remains an undeniable kernel of truth: in a beautiful moment of kismet, for some indescribable reason, a piece of art resonates with you. For Reddit user @_rahmatullah, that happened when they read a specific book. On the Subreddit “r/productivity”, they wrote,
“A few months ago, I stumbled upon a book (I won’t name it here to avoid biasing responses), and it triggered something I can’t fully explain. It didn’t just change how I think—it changed what I notice, how I react, and how I show up in life. Since then, I’ve made it a habit to collect these transformation stories—not summaries, not reviews—but real-life shifts triggered by reading a book. It’s incredible how the right book, read at the right moment, acts like a psychological lever.”
Then, they posed the following question: “I’m asking this out of pure curiosity (and maybe low-key research): Have you ever read a book that changed your internal wiring in any way—your mindset, habits, or how you see the world? … Sometimes, the best books aren’t bestsellers—they’re just the right words hitting us at the right time.”
"Supposably."
Mispronouncing words happens to all of us. Even for the most diction and grammar-literate, words can come out scrambled. But in the English language, some words are commonly mispronounced more than others, somehow becoming commonplace in our everyday language.
Mispronouncing words or phrases irks many people, and in a popular online forum, member @Wonderful-Economy762 posed this question about mispronounced words: "What is one word that people wrongly pronounce that makes your brain just wanna jump a cliff?" And its fellow members did not hold back.
Many shared their feelings about how it feels when they hear people mispronouncing them:
"My rage bubbled up faster than expected reading this," one wrote.
Another added, "Oh man, nails on a chalkboard. I instantly make unfair assumptions about the person who says this."
Daily News for Curious Minds
Be the smartest person in the room by reading 1440! Dive into 1440, where 4 million Americans find their daily, fact-based news fix. We navigate through 100+ sources to deliver a comprehensive roundup from every corner of the internet – politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a quick, 5-minute newsletter. It's completely free and devoid of bias or political influence, ensuring you get the facts straight. Subscribe to 1440 today.
A teen tried to prank Rue McClanahan with a profane question but her response was golden
Larry King wasn’t ready for it, but she was unshakable.
If you had a television in the mid-80s, it's quite possible you would have at least heard of the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls. Created by Susan Harris, it wasn't only a huge ratings hit with audiences, but a darling for critics as well, winning Golden Globes and Emmys, including one for each of its leading actresses.
The show was ahead of its time and truly spoke to women entering their "third act" of life. The premise? Four women share a Miami home while navigating life after 50 and learning that friendship is a beacon of light when facing any kind of adversity.
Those women—Dorothy, Rose, Sophia, and Blanche—were played brilliantly by Bea Arthur, Betty White, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, respectively.
In 1988, McClanahan went on Larry King Live to promote The Golden Girls and also her work with Purina's Pets for People program, which Rue explains is an "adoption program that Purina has helped set up for citizens over 60 years old."
Some names are music to our ears. Here are the 50 best sounding ones according to science.
Parents filled with baby name anxiety should learn about the Bouba-Kiki effect.
Choosing a baby name is both fulfilling and precarious. Many parents rack their brains trying to come up with the perfect moniker—one that honors their lineage, where they were born, the personality they’ll hopefully have, or all of the above. Obviously, no easy feat.
To make things more complicated, more and more parents are experimenting with trendy or unique-sounding names, which at best can make their kid stand out, and at worse, leave them a bit isolated.
But maybe relying on science could be a more reliable strategy. As author Bill Sullivan, Ph.D., explained in an article for Psychology Today, parents can incorporate a phenomenon known as the Bouba/Kiki effect to help ensure that a name remains appealing throughout a child’s entire life, simply because it will always be pleasant sounding.
The term “Bouba/Kiki effect” emerged from a set of experiments in which people were presented with both a round and spikey shape, and asked to link the shapes to either the word “bouba,” or “kiki.” The discovery that people consistently agree that rounded shape = “bouba” and the spiky shape = kiki showed that people inherently make image associations for certain words. Collective synesthesia, if you will.