Most of us regard our beliefs as rational. More often, though, moral reasoning is more like a politician than a scientist: it seeks justification and support, not the truth. This bias means that we’re heavily inclined to assume that our beliefs are correct—even when presented with evidence that proves otherwise. Psychologists call this phenomenon confirmation […]
Do You Know Your Next Five Moves?
In chess, there are two kinds of players: those who see the next move, and those who see many moves ahead. Business operates according to the same principle. People who only plan for tomorrow are short-sighted. You must always have your next five moves in mind. Why five moves (and not six, or ten)? Because […]
Are We Coddling Our Kids?
On average, today’s college freshmen have met fewer developmental goals than previous generations. Kids in most countries are safer today than they were at any other point in history. Yet for a variety of reasons, American parents seem to believe that children should never be without adult supervision. By shielding kids from every risk they […]
Blueprint for a Better Life
While Siri (and Google, and Alexa) can instantly answer almost any question, they don’t know anything about our emotional lives. We all ask each other “How are you?” seemingly countless times a day. It’s become such a reflex that we rarely notice when we say it, and almost never give an accurate answer. We don’t expect, […]
Why Are There So Many Conspiracy Theories?
History tells us that deadly epidemics tend to bring about the spread of misinformation. The current pandemic has fueled many conspiracy theories regarding the nature of COVID-19 and its spread. Misinformation networks have been accelerated and extended by modern technology. That includes social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Bad information about the supposed cures […]
Were Your Parents Emotionally Immature?
When you were a kid, were your parents impulsive, insecure, or narcissistic? These personality problems can have an outsized impact on kids, who are programmed to look to their parents for security and care. There are four types of emotionally immature parents: emotional, driven, passive, and rejecting. Emotional parents are easily upset and expect others […]
How to Raise a Happy Kid
Did your parents ever force you to participate in an activity you dreaded as a kid? Whether it was music lessons, a team sport, or something else, most of us were required to spend time doing something we didn’t want to do. Many people have false assumptions about success, especially when it comes to their children. They […]
Better Decisions, Starting Now
There’s a common misunderstanding regarding the relationship between reason and emotion. People think that, in forming a worldview or making a decision, you can be motivated either by deep feeling or cold, emotionless rationality. In fact, reason and emotion are intertwined on a neurobiological level. For example, if you think about something terrifying that happened to […]
How to Hit Reset
How can you minimize distractions? By building them into your schedule. The Pomodoro Technique is a time-management method based on the idea that frequent breaks improve mental agility. By breaking down your work into 25-minute chunks, you can procrastinate less and concentrate better. Here’s how the technique works: set a timer for 25 minutes. Work […]
How to Avoid Burnout
With many people still working from home, the line between work and leisure has grown increasingly blurry. But the human brain and body aren’t built to work at full power for long stretches of time. We work much better when we oscillate between effort and rest. “Rest” doesn’t just mean sleep, by the way. Rest […]
