I’m writing this early in the morning of Election Day 2020 in the United States. This post is not going to be about political opinions, but about how they affect us, and today is the most salient day to bear this in mind, as we end a divisive & difficult season with hopes of more … Continue reading What Politics Draws Out of Us
What’s happening in your circle of friends and family profoundly impacts how you think about risk and threat. Continue reading Rare vs. Common: How We Think About Threat
The hype cycle helps tell the story of how societies experiment and learn, and what it shows us about people’s psychology Continue reading The Hype Cycle: How We Adopt New Ideas
Most of our actions are based on guesses about what will happen in the future and what will make us happy, and so we can change our behavior by understanding and changing how we do that prediction. Continue reading How People Predict the Future: Amos Tversky
When we talk to one another, we aren’t just communicating but we are forming and evolving our own set of beliefs over time. Through practice, or recitation, beliefs take shape, and become more firm. Continue reading How Talking Changes our Beliefs and Minds
Whenever we experience a piece of art like a movie or hear a piece of music, there are two forms of meaning – the meaning that the art gives to you, and the meaning that you put into it. Continue reading Bringing Yourself: Projection
What is Masonic ritual, how does it work, and why do we do it? Continue reading Why Ritual
Certain feelings are overwhelming. Or confusing and twisted; we can’t even begin to describe what’s going on inside of ourselves. A person close to me once relayed a story about being with a therapist, and being overcome with feelings of anxiety. The therapist told her not to focus on naming the feeling, but just experiencing … Continue reading Say My Name
When we try to change ourselves, most people think it requires will power. We are supposed to cultivate will power, because change is hard, and to overcome that difficulty we need will power. People who do great things have lots of will power. Or so we think. This is an extremely unhelpful way of thinking … Continue reading Will Power Isn’t the Way
There’s too much reality happening for a person to take it all in. Human brains have this marvelous facility we call attention, that allows us to filter the firehose of information that’s coming in, and winnow it down to a useful set of things we can use to get stuff done. For something to be … Continue reading The Radio Station Game
