Essays
2026
You Can Be Weird or Do Whatever You Want
On the difference between just avoiding wrong and actually building a life in three dimensions.
3 min read
The Mind You Think You Control
What TMS experiments reveal about how much of our sense of free choice is actually an illusion.
2 min read
Motivation Is a New Kind of Addiction
On why your brain can't tell watching a motivational video from actually doing the thing.
2 min read
Your Stupidity Is Factored In
On making big decisions with incomplete information, and finding faith in the moves you can't fully calculate.
1 min read
Why Do We Spend Money So Easily?
On why the brain treats your future self as a stranger, and how to measure prices in hours instead of cash.
2 min read
Consistency, and Not Giving Up
On "Quitters' Day," the public commitment effect, and why announcing a goal makes you far more likely to keep it.
3 min read2025
Why Do People Take Their Own Lives?
On individualism, blame, and how the word for "poor" quietly changed from "unfortunate" to "loser."
3 min read
Losses Hit Harder Than Gains
On loss aversion, why "you'll lose your bonus" motivates more than "you'll get a bonus," and how to use that pull on purpose.
2 min read
It's Good to Be Bored (I Think)
On boredom as the engine behind curiosity, daydreaming, and how discoveries like Newton's actually happen.
2 min read
What Is Character, Really?
Why knowledge keeps rising while character doesn't — and what actually reveals it.
3 min read