Blogs

Ancient wisdom and modern psychology on death, time, and the paradoxes of living well. Short concepts with long implications. Memento Mori Practices Daily death meditation. “Remember you must die.” Historical practices: Roman generals: Slave whispered “memento mori” during victory parades Monks: Kept skulls on desks Medieval practice: Regular graveyard visits Steve Jobs: Asked daily “If today were my last day…” Sounds morbid. Actually clarifying. What happens: Trivial problems disappear Petty arguments feel absurd You stop postponing what matters Fear of death decreases (paradoxically) Modern practice: ...

Brain Series Current: Brain Training for Your 20s Stress and Cognition All Posts Next Your 20s are your brain’s golden decade. ...

The writing advice is nearly universal: “Make your characters three-dimensional! Give them depth! Show their complexity!” And then you look at some of the most beloved stories ever told-fairy tales, myths, adventure films, genre fiction-and realize: many of their characters are flat as paper. And it works perfectly. James Bond doesn’t have a meaningful character arc across most films. Indiana Jones is the same person at the end as at the beginning. Sherlock Holmes remains fundamentally unchanged across decades of stories. ...

Deeply Personal Current: Human Grade Pet Food Comfort Food for the Soul All Posts Cats and Empathy The Truth About ‘Human Grade’ Pet Food: Marketing vs. Nutrition Ace, our 3-year-old gray-and-white domestic shorthair, is pickier than most Michelin-star food critics. He weighs approximately 5 kilograms, has strong opinions about kibble texture, and has rejected more brands of cat food than I can count. ...

Brain Series Current: Stress and Cognition Social Connection All Posts Brain Training for Your 20s A little stress sharpens your mind. Chronic stress destroys it. ...

Walter White cooks meth and poisons a child. Amy Dunne frames her husband for murder with sociopathic precision. Jordan Belfort defrauds thousands and revels in his own depravity. And we can’t stop watching. This is the paradox of the unsympathetic protagonist: characters who violate our moral codes yet remain narratively compelling. They shouldn’t work-but in the right hands, they become cultural phenomena. The question isn’t whether you should write unlikeable protagonists. It’s how to make them watchable without sacrificing moral complexity. ...

Deeply Personal Current: Comfort Food for the Soul Pawns & Paws All Posts Next Comfort Food for the Soul: What We Eat When We Win (And When We Lose) In our home in Finland, food is not just sustenance-it’s our primary love language, our apology mechanism, and our celebration protocol. My wife and I have an unspoken rule: when words fail, we cook. ...

You have 37,482 unread emails. 14,000 photos on your phone (5,000 screenshots you’ll never look at again). A Downloads folder with 2,000 files dating back to 2014. 42 browser tabs open right now. 7 note-taking apps, each with hundreds of notes you’ll never revisit. You tell yourself: “I might need this someday.” You never do. But you can’t delete it. Welcome to digital hoarding-the modern epidemic of keeping everything and finding nothing. ...

Brain Series Current: Social Connection Meditation for Skeptics All Posts Stress and Cognition Loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. ...

Brain Series Current: Meditation for Skeptics Digital Detox All Posts Social Connection “Meditation is for hippies. I don’t have time to sit cross-legged chanting ‘om’ for an hour.” ...