The Courage of Our Conniptions  Musings on religion, politics
and other unmentionables.  The High Cost of Agreeability
Agreeability and work life balance, penalty or premium?  It's no
secret that we're descended from Chimpanzees and partial heirs
to their competitive hierarchical structures, so why am I so
shocked at the occasional impulse to gnash my teeth while
clicking the obligatory Facebook 'like' on a colleague's
accomplishment?  Envy, the slight, hollow sense that an
imbalance requiring immediate correction has occurred, is often
triggered when childish expectations of fairness and equality
are toppled by another's advantage (real or perceived) or dumb
luck. It's a fairly universal phenomenon, but for people who
took grade school maxims like, "It's nice to be important but
more important to be nice" to heart, it's a very uncomfortable
experience.  According to Leon Festinger's classic 1954 paper on
social comparison, people are innately driven to assess their
opinions and abilities against others. In