On Topic: Gray skies are gonna clear up

Maybe you saw this, too: Did you read about the pretty widely reported survey earlier this year that suggested - suggested, mind you - that people who use Firefox or Google Chrome are probably smarter - or at least better job prospects - than those who use Safari or internet Explorer?

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Cornerstone OnDemand, a company that sells recruiting software, sorted through data from an online jobs-assessment that had been taken by some 50,000 applicants who, in turn, had landed a job. What the research found, among other things, was that job seekers who had used Firefox or Chrome - non-default browsers that they'd had to download themselves - stayed at those jobs approximately 15 percent longer than others who'd take the test with Safari or Explorer.

(Before anyone starts getting ugly with any of their hardware biases, the results were pretty much equal for Mac and PC.)

Cornerstone OnDemand's chief analytics officer, Michael Houseman, didn't want to tease out any cause-and-effect relationship when he was interviewed by Freakonomics Radio. But he did say people who took the effort showed that 'You've made an active choice to do something that wasn't default.”

That is, you showed initiative. You could be more of a go-getter, to use a term your parents might have employed when enumerating the many long-term benefits of your getting outside and mowing the grass, gosh darn it.

But here's the question: Can you learn to become a go-getter? Randall Bell, author of 'Rich Habits Rich Life: The Four Cornerstones of All Great Pursuits,” says, sure. Maybe. But you have to work at it.

Bell is a socio-economist who used to work at auditing giant PwC and now heads real-estate-damage economics company Landmark Research Group, based in Laguna Beach, Calif. He has a deceptively simple message, though.

He writes about the Halo Effect, a 1977 study that drew on two pretty much word-for-word lectures. In one, the lecturer spoke in kind, warm tone to his audience. In the second, he intentionally gave his talk in a less friendly tone of voice.

At the end, his audiences were asked to grade him on his subject knowledge. You'd be correct if you guessed the 'happy” lecturer was viewed as smarter.

In making his case for putting on a cheery face - literally and figuratively - he leaves few quotes unturned, calling up inspiration from Ben Franklin, George Washington Carver, Albert Schweitzer, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Norman Vincent Peale, Yogi Berra and, somewhat more recently, Denise Brown, sister of Nicole Brown Simpson.

His mantra in 'Rich Habits Rich Life” boils down to Me, We, Do and Be. While that remind some of a catchy Frank Sinatra lyric, Bell intends each word to stand for a concrete goal - create habits that generate quality thinking; foster relationships; develop productivity; and build the future.

He applies his four categories to boosting our personal health, finance and state of mind as well as to work.

Among his list of 'We” tips are 'Listen to others completely before you speak,” 'Have lunch or coffee with a friend __ times per week” and 'Say thank you to the retail clerks and anyone who helps you.”

The book's 'Rich Habits,” sprinkled throughout, vouch for reading more ('Those who read seven or more books a year are more than 122.0 percent more likely to be millionaires as opposed to those who have never read or only read one to three”), going to baseball games (such people tend to experience a better romantic life and be happier overall) and keeping your mouth closed on occasion (healthy people, Bell writes, demonstrate more restraint).

Much of what Bell advises you've likely heard or read before - in a Blue Zones session, on a self-help CD, in another motivational book. The Pacific Institute sessions from Lou Tice made the rounds in the Corridor only a few years ago.

Or maybe your parents told you these things.

But, you know, Bell isn's wrong. If you go into the office every day assuming things will work out, you could have a decent shot at success.

On the other hand, if you show with the attitude that the roof is going to cave in on your head any minute, you're most certainly right.

' Michael Chevy Castranova is Business and Sunday editor of The Gazette; (319) 398-5873; michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com