University as a Service

American Universities sell an ongoing service that alumni receive for the rest of their lives, co-creating the good with other people who've paid a costly signal of their commitment to it.

The Longer It Takes, The Longer-Longer It Takes

So many things takes longer than they should, but longer-taking things take longer-longer

One of the Biggest Stories of the Century Happened, We Just Don’t Know Which

There's only 3 possibilities, and all of them are bananas.

Believe Everything

Something I heard recently is that your brain processes new information by first temporarily believing it and then, if necessary, disconfirming it. So if you're told something false, you'll very briefly believe it – try it on for size, I guess -- before tagging it as inconsistent

Book Review: Yąnomamö: The Fierce People

Napoleon Chagnon's book was so poorly received that he was accused of committing genocide via measles. Needless to say, I was intrigued.

Uninterrupted Work

Why exactly do various tasks suffer so much if you're interrupted?

We Picked Right with Einstein

Our intellectual role model should be the most moral person we can find that’s at least passable as a “smart person”. What we got is a moral sage that’s passable as the most influential mind of all time.

Psychological Debt

In coding there's an idea called "technical debt." The same exists for psychology -- spend now, pay later....

Rags-to-Riches of the Century: Francis Ngannou

He nearly bled to death in the desert and crossed the Mediterranean on a pool toy. It'd be movie-worthy if he became an accountant in Cleveland, but instead, he became World Champion.

Happiness Is Two Scales

The common way to talk about happiness is as a single scale: unhappy at one end, neutral in the middle, happy at the other end. I think that model is wrong.