ANATOLY IVANOV / PROSE / CATEGORIES / PSYCHOLOGY

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  + 

DEBRIEFING INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS IN RELATIONSHIPS?

PSYCHOLOGY / TRANSPORTATION / ESSAYS / 2022-01-22

Do you know how the aviation industry improved to become the safest mode of transportation? Debriefings of incidents and accidents. Do we debrief our failed relationships? No. Do we improve? No. We get into the same cockpit of a 1970′s McDonnell Douglas DC-10 saying “oh,  + 

“THE ART OF IMPOSSIBLE” BY STEVEN KOTLER REVIEW

BIOLOGY / JOURNALISM / LITERATURE / REVIEWS / 2021-06-08

“The Art of Impossible” by Steven Kotler is a perfect example of a book by a journalist who does punchy write-ups of other books written by other punchy journalists who cite popular self-hack writers (like Tim Ferriss, whose advice is retold several times), who talk  + 

PERSIST AND DO THE WORK… OR GO BACK TO MISSOURI

ART THEORY / CINEMA / LITERATURE / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2021-03-23

“When things get tough with that rewrite, and you’re starting to see this whole dream fall apart… who are the ones that actually stay in for the long haul? Often it’s narcissists. Often it’s people with big egos. It’s people who really think they’re interesting.  + 

QUICKLY GAUGE A PERSON BY INQUIRING ABOUT THEIR OPINION

ECONOMICS / HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2021-03-19

These days, you can super-quickly gauge a person by inquiring about their opinion on: Covid-19 vaccines climate change religion (especially Islam) UBI (Universal Basic Income) equality of outcome (especially gender issues) body fat over 30% Superb predictive power, eh?  + 

  <  OLDER POSTS 

TWEETS CATEGORIES ARCHIVES SEARCH ABOUT PROSE

TIP: To print images, enable “Print backgrounds” in your browser preferences.