Could the internet be making us stupider? Cal Newport suggests it might. He shares recent research that shows electronic multitasking results in poorer performance on cognitive tasks. No surprise there: being on Facebook or Twitter won’t help you concentrate. The interesting finding however, was that chronic multitaskers perform significantly worse on tasks even when they […]
How Fast are You Running to Stay in the Same Place?
In Lewis Carrol’s novella, Through the Looking Glass, there’s a wonderful dialog between Alice and the Red Queen: “Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.” “A slow sort of country!” said the […]
Mental Aikido: The Necessity of Unhappiness in the Ideal Life
Happiness is important, but that doesn’t mean that the ideal life is free from unhappy moments. Discover how mental Aikido can help you deal with these moments.
Are You Living Life or Just Planning Your Biography?
One of the most startling findings of modern psychology is how bad we are at guessing what will make us happy. Not only are we lousy at predicting what will satisfy us, we often misremember our happiness in the past. In perhaps one of the best online talks I’ve ever watched, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.