ANATOLY IVANOV / PROSE / CATEGORIES / PSYCHOLOGY

THE CATCH-22 OF EXPECTING NICE THINGS FROM RICH PSYCHOPATHS

BIOLOGY / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2024-11-23

If someone’s only definition of freedom is “I can do whatever I want if I have a lot of money” and they tend to Bask in Reflected Glory (BIRG) — they are easy prey to the psychopaths who convince them on some Freedom of Speech Platform  + 

DJ TO COMPOSER REVENUE SHARING SERVICE ASLICE CLOSES

ECONOMICS / MUSIC / PSYCHOLOGY / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2024-09-05

Yet another Coordination Problem example, Aslice — a music revenue-sharing platform launched in 2022 — closed. It encouraged DJs to report setlists and pay a % of their fee to the artists they played (à la GEMA-Vermutung). Top-paid DJ refused to participate  + 

HOW NOT TO ASK INTERESTING QUESTIONS WHEN INTERVIEWING

JOURNALISM / PSYCHOLOGY / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2024-07-23

I wonder how Peterson used to work as a clinical psychologist with his patients back in the day? Imagine a 15-minute session with Elon Musk: Ah, doc, I have this sort of crisis of… Peterson: It’s the prior axiomatic interpretive structure you have. Then you have the chaotic potential  + 

DOES ANYONE CARE HOW YOU LOOK, DAY-TO-DAY?

GADGETS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2024-03-19

Wear the same outfit for a month to notice that no one notices. If it’s clean — no one cares. Even if your jeans got holes. Even if you’re a woman, certain that you need a new dress and a matching handbag every day. People  + 

STUDY BIOLOGY OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES

BIOLOGY / ECONOMICS / JOURNALISM / ESSAYS / 2023-12-30

We’ve had opposite extremes — capitalists & communists, Adam Smithians & Karl Marxists — completely miss the obvious. Humans are not rational, deterministic “utility functions” optimizing for individual or collective “good”. Free markets’ invisible hand will correct?  + 

ART VS LIMITLESS’ MONEY, SEX & POWER… WHO’D WIN?

CINEMA / ECONOMICS / FINANCE / SOCIETY / REVIEWS / 2023-09-18

Fascinating how the film “Limitless” by Neil Burger starring Bradley Cooper paints a dreamy picture of a struggling artist with an external solution to everything — a pill, stolen by the artist — to be used by the artist to pursue: 1) money 2) sex 3) power… and his art?  + 

ELON MUSK: IF AI COULD REPLACE ME, SHOULD I BE DOING THIS?

HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-05-17

Elon Musk just said on CNBC something I’d been thinking about a lot: “If we do get to this sort of magic genie situation, where you can ask the AI for anything. And let’s say, even if it’s a benign scenario… How do we actually  + 

HOW TO BE HAPPY? MY 5 MINUTES DIALOGUE WITH CHATGPT

COMPUTERS / HEALTH / LINGUISTICS / ESSAYS / 2023-05-16

My conversation about human happiness with ChatGPT took 5 minutes. Question: According to what is currently known to science, what 50 factors, listed from most influential to least, influence a human (male, with an IQ above 100) self-reported feeling of happiness  + 

THE BLOCK FOREVER ARCHIVE

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIAL MEDIA / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-05-02

Only thoughtless people do crazy things, publish emotional photos, record damming TikToks, break up “forever”… relying on the “Delete Chat” and “Block” buttons of messengers and social apps. Those unable to think ahead imagine they will never face the consequences. Our digital footprint describes our  + 

DELEGATE AN AI (LLM) TO TALK WITH YOUR TINDER MATCH

COMPUTERS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-04-21

Wow. The Match Group did indeed introduce chat-assist to Tinder. Just look at their suggestions to start a dialogue after a match: 😱 • Hiiii Jane! Getting into anything fun this week? • Hello Jane. How’s it going? • Hi there! Getting into anything fun  + 

THE ARGUMENT BY FUZZY CONCEPT

LINGUISTICS / PHILOSOPHY / PSYCHOLOGY / ESSAYS / 2023-02-11

The “argument by fuzzy concept” fallacy is second only to ad hominem… An argument of intellectual indoctrination, laziness and dullness which, if pressed, degenerates into circular reasoning, requiring, at best, a definition by negation (“not hate, not lust, not friendship, not nⁿ…”) Got a World  + 

WHY ARE WE NOT FREE?

PSYCHOLOGY / RELIGION / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2023-02-10

Are we really free? Are we free to be who we really are? The answer is no, we are not free. True freedom has to do with the human spirit — it is the freedom to be who we really are. Who stops us from  + 

MORE MONEY CAN BUY YOU MORE PILLS

ECONOMICS / HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-01-24

“America is a kind, generous place… if you have money. It’s a rapacious, violent place if you don’t have money. To be wealthy in America is to be loved. People find you interesting, they want to know you. You have a broader selection of mates.  + 

DAVID GOGGINS RUNS BECAUSE HE HATES IT

PSYCHOLOGY / RUNNING / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-01-18

“I run every single morning. That’s because that’s the one thing I hate to do more than anything in the world” — David Goggins, an ultramarathon runner and triathlete. I wonder whether people who worship him realize the all-too-common pattern of self-abuse and hate in  + 

LIFE IS SHORT AND UNCERTAIN… ACT NOW

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2022-10-18

Life is short. You might have heard that one before. And uncertain. You can die at any moment, making it even shorter. So think hard about what you do with your gift of life right now, not after you “get funded” or “feel inspired” or  + 

ROBERT SAPOLSKY ON WHY RUSSIANS ARE STUCK IN A SUBMISSIVE / AGGRESSIVE LOOP

POLITICS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / LINKS / 2022-10-12

An interesting take on why Russians have been stuck in a submissive / aggressive loop for centuries by Robert Sapolsky, who privileges the nurture (culture) component rather than the nature (DNA) factor. I’d disagree somewhat: the negative selection pressure has expunged the country of its  + 

“CHEAP SEX” BOOK REVIEW – IT’S GONNA COST US MORE THAN WE THINK

BIOLOGY / ECONOMICS / HEALTH / SOCIETY / REVIEWS / 2022-09-19

“Cheap Sex” is a great book by sociologist Mark Regnerus to compliment David Buss’ “Evolution of Desire”. It describes the current personal and interpersonal sexuality / gender relations state of affairs in the US. The local trends and stats which do or will impact the  + 

“HOW EMOTIONS ARE MADE” BOOK REVIEW (PSST… WE DON’T KNOW)

BIOLOGY / HEALTH / LINGUISTICS / REVIEWS / 2022-09-05

“How Emotions Are Made“ is yet another weird book with a promising title, written for someone without any knowledge of science, its methods and branches. Possibly for those of us who skipped biology classes in school and haven’t read anything about neuroscience ever since? The  + 

HOW TO SPOT SOMEONE SERIOUS ABOUT YOGA?

HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2022-02-10

They: don’t go to a “studio” — they practice at home / office / traveling… daily, wearing whatever or semi-naked (no “yoga” apparel) sit in siddhasana / padmasana casually “because it’s comfy” while talking / eating / typing — optimize for meditation, not circus acrobatics  + 

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE AN APPLE MACOS DEVELOPER?

COMPUTERS / MANAGEMENT / PSYCHOLOGY / ESSAYS / 2022-02-01

I’ve always wondered: how does it feel to be an Apple macOS developer? You can’t isolate yourself from the ‘official’ bug reports, or the ‘unofficial’, but very vocal and public grudges on Twitter, about the character / emojis palette random misbehavior since, when, 2014? Or  + 

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