Creative people are often seen as a rarity: smart, curious, and able to look at the world with fresh eyes. A common misconception is that creativity cannot be cultivated, and that instead some lucky people have an innate sense of creativity. But this assumption is wrong. According to classical psychology research, there are three main … Read More
Have you ever tried to fix a problem, only to make things worse? That’s called the Cobra Effect—when an attempted solution results in unintended consequences. Because most of our cause-to-effect experiences involve very simple, direct relationships, we tend to think in terms of linear chain of events. But the world is much more complex than … Read More
Let’s say you want to become a published author. You have this clear objective you want to achieve, and decide on a game plan to get there. You read about the stories of other authors, you make a list of publishers to reach out to, you think about ways you could get an agent. You … Read More
A few weeks ago, I took a training to become a certified Mental Health First Aider. It’s an amazing evidence-based training which has been designed in partnership with the NHS and is accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health. Here is the link if you’d like to take it in England, but they offer … Read More
When going through tough times, our automatic reaction is to complain and dwell on negative events, which can result in even more anxiety and unhappiness. The word gratitude comes from Latin gratus, which means ”pleasing” or “thankful” depending on the context. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for the people, experiences, and things we have. While … Read More
“I am not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people.” John Steinbeck, very talented and successful author who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. Yesterday, I launched my newsletter on Product Hunt. The launch went incredibly well, with 1,300 new subscribers joining the list, lots of kind comments, and a second spot … Read More
I hit an important milestone this week. About 100,000 people have read the writings on this website. I couldn’t hope for that kind of scale when I decided to write one article every weekday. It’s a pretty exciting thought to have thousands of people engaging with ideas coming straight out of your mind. It made … Read More
I always cry at least once when on a long-haul flight. It happens to me even when the movie I’m watching is not particularly sad. And apparently, I’m not the only one experiencing this strange phenomenon. As someone who travels quite a lot, I became curious about the science behind why we cry more easily … Read More
Most of us have goals we want to accomplish. Some are bigger, some are smaller. Sometimes it feels easy to get the work done, and sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated and we procrastinate. Fundamentally motivation is the desire to act and move towards a specific goal. It often explains why humans act—or don’t—in a … Read More
In my article about neuromyths, I debunked the commonly-held belief that IQ tests results only represent your ability to take IQ tests. In reality—and despite their flaws—IQ tests are predictive of many things. And, in particular, IQ tests can help predict your chances of dying. In a cohort study conducted in 2009 with almost a … Read More