A common worry is that technological development, and increasingly advanced AI in particular, will necessarily remove meaning from our lives. For instance, if humanity ends up in a situation of extreme material abundance, but at some point there is a lack of ability for most (or all) people to do work that's value-additive, will that lead to widespread depression and lack of meaning? While I t...

People often say things like the following about anger's relationship to other emotions - but are they B.S.? They say: "Depression is anger turned inward." "Anger is sadness's bodyguard." "Anger is just a manifestation of sadness." "There is an anger iceberg (anger on top, with sadness, fear, or shame beneath)." "In men, sadness and depression show up as anger." While there is...

It's interesting how studies on the negative effects of social media on mental health are mixed: some find an effect, some don't (or only find a very small effect). Some take this as proof that social media is actually fine for mental health. My hypothesis is different. I think that the effects of social media are extremely heterogeneous based on app, population, and dosage: that in some subgr...

There's something really interesting and potentially important happening in the space of people suffering from chronic medical conditions that modern medicine provides no good solutions for, such as Long COVID, IBS, functional dyspepsia, fibromyalgia, chronic back or joint pain without injury/disease, ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, PTLDS/Chronic Lyme disease, and so on. I'm talking here specificall...

There's a claim growing rapidly in popularity that organizations in the US have become much more social justice-oriented/woke over the decades because of the increasing fraction of women in them. Note that this is not a claim about organizations becoming generically progressive or liberal, or about women being progressive-leaning. It's a much more specific claim: that institutions in the US be...

There's a pattern that has repeated many times throughout history, which leads to countries suffering under terrible leadership. It's important to understand this pattern because it's likely to continue to repeat. Here are the steps of how this happens, as I see it, though not every one of these steps occurs in every single case: (1) Many people feel dissatisfied with the state of their soc...

Many things in life are most effectively pursued by going after them directly (e.g., if you want coffee, make some coffee). But some of the most important things are most effectively pursued indirectly. For example: If you want to be happy right now, don't try really hard to be happy right now. Instead, do something that's both meaningful and pleasurable. If you want to find someone to f...

Circling, for anyone who hasn't tried it, is an unusual kind of "authentic relating" group activity that can help people better understand each other and themselves. Thinking about it got me wondering - what other similar activities can a group do together that can accomplish different results (that might have their own unique strengths and weaknesses)? Here's my brainstormed list of Circling alt...

For years, whenever I've encountered a word for a fascinating concept that my computer's built-in dictionary didn't recognize, I've added it to a collection I keep of "Fascinating Obscure Concepts." Here's the first part of my list of these unusual concepts you may never have encountered before: —LITTLE-KNOWN SELF-IMPROVEMENT CONCEPTS 1) Musterbating: Albert Ellis' term for rigid, self-impo...

You're absolutely right. About all of it. The big stuff, the weird stuff, the "nobody-gets-this" stuff. Every belief you hold is, against all odds, completely correct. I know I said before that you were wrong, but it was I who was wrong! Here's proof: 1) Unlike others, you're self-aware. You know your limits, so - unlike other people - when you know something, it's true. You weighed the eviden...