The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment

by A. J. Jacobs

  Posner, Michael, and Mary Rothbart. Educating the Human Brain. New York: APA, 2006.

  Wallace, B. Alan. The Attention Revolution. Somerville, Mass.: Wisdom, 2006.

  CHAPTER 9: WHIPPED

  Belkin, Lisa. “When Mom and Dad Share It All.” New York Times, June 15, 2008.

  Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, a History. New York: Penguin, 2006.

  Dowd, Maureen. Are Men Necessary? New York: Putnam Adult, 2005.

  Faber, Adele, and Elaine Mazlish. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. New York: Avon, 1999.

  Fisher, Helen. Why We Love. New York: Henry Holt, 2004.

  Glover, Robert A. No More Mr. Nice Guy! Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003.

  Gray, John. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

  Hochschild, Arlie Russell, with Anne Machung. The Second Shift. New York: Penguin, 1993.

  Schwartz, Pepper. Love Between Equals. New York: Free Press, 1994.

  Acknowledgments

  There’s an irrational brain quirk called the “Egocentric Bias,” which causes an individual to overestimate his or her contribution to a joint project and underestimate others’ contributions.

  No way I’m falling for that. Which is why I’m about to go on an epic thanking spree. So here goes:

  Thank you to Marysue Rucci, my editor at Simon & Schuster, who is brilliant, funny, inspiring, and also patient with deadlines.

  Thanks to Sloan Harris at ICM, a great agent whose civility rivals George Washington’s.

  Thanks to David Granger, the visionary editor of Esquire, in whose magazine some of these essays had their start. And to Peter Griffin, who edited some of these essays for Esquire and made them a hell of a lot better.

  Thanks to Rob Weisbach, without whom I wouldn’t be a writer.

  There are an absurd number of people to thank at Simon & Schuster: the unflappable Julia Prosser, Nicole De Jackmo, Victoria Meyer, Aileen Boyle, Lisa Healy, Marcella Berger, Jackie Seow, Amy Cormier, Leah Wasielewski, and Sophie Epstein, one of the greatest e-mailers I know. Thanks to my bosses, David Rosenthal and Carolyn Reidy, for the unwavering support.

  I’m indebted to all who read the manuscript and gave me their wisdom, namely: Shannon Barr, Neely Harris, Andrew Lund, Kevin Roose, David Katz, Brian Raftery, John Podhoretz, Lily Percy, Jeffrey Engel, Candice Braun, Lynette Vanderwarker, Gary Rudoren, Gretchen Rubin, Paul Mandell, Roger Bennett, Peter Martin, Chad Millman, and Albert Kim.

  I’m grateful to those who helped focus my thoughts about focusing— Maggie Jackson and John Fossella.

  Thanks to the patriotic staff at Mount Vernon, especially James Rees, Mary Thompson, and Melissa Wood.

  Thanks to Nigel Parry and F. Scott Schafer for the images.

  Thanks to APB’s Ken Eisenstein, Jonathan Braverman, and Linda Braverman. And to the rational minds of Cass Sunstein, Richard Thaler, and Dan Ariely.

  Thanks to many others at ICM, including Josie Freedman and Kristyn Keene.

  Thanks again to my understanding family—my mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law—for allowing me to turn their private lives public.

  Thanks to my mother-in-law, who made the right decision about her apartment.

  Thanks, above all, to my preternaturally saintly wife, Julie, and our three wonderful guinea pigs, Jasper, Zane, and Lucas.

  About the Author

  A. J. Jacobs is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically. He is the editor at large at Esquire magazine. A.J. has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly, and is an occasional correspondent for National Public Radio. He lives in New York City with his wife, Julie, and their children. You can visit his website at www.ajjacobs.com.