The 11 Best Psychology and Philosophy Books of 2011
by Maria Popova What it means to be human, how pronouns are secretly shaping our lives, and why we believe. After the year’s best children’s books, art and design books, photography books, science books, history books, and food books, the 2011 best-of series continues with the most compelling, provocative and thought-provoking psychology and philosophy books featured here this year. We spend most of our lives going around believing we are rational, logical beings who make carefully weighted decisions based on objective facts in stable circumstances. The original trailer for the book deals with something the psychology of which we’ve previously explored — procrastination: And this excellent alternative trailer is a straight shot to our favorite brilliant book trailers: Despite his second-person directive narrative, McRaney manages to keep his tone from being preachy or patronizing, instead weaving an implicit “we” into his “you” to encompass all our shared human fallibility.
30 Very Funny Books--Seriously
It's a dreary day, so I thought I'd indulge myself and come up with a list of my favorite comedies. A caveat, however: this is not a fancy English-professor-y list of the finest, most exquisitely crafted, most erudite or intellectually sophisticated works on paper in the language. This is a list of the books that make me laugh until my mascara starts to run. These are books to read over your first cup of coffee or just before you go to sleep . Remember: a day you've laughed is day you haven't wasted--even if you didn't get out of bed. Some days you need a jump-start to get to the funny parts of life. You've probably heard of most of these titles, and maybe you've already read several of them. You ready? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. And of course this is just the beginning.
Can Passion and Security Coexist? Reflections on Cronenberg’s "A Dangerous Method"
"Where such men love, they have no desire, and where they desire they cannot love." Freud , S. Collected Papers. IV, Hogarth, 1925. Once you've built a home, a family, a life together, how do you make sense of the fact that the thrill is–or seems to be–gone? In the new David Cronenberg film, , a tortured Carl Jung struggles with these very questions. With Freud's help, Jung uncovers the source of Sabina's troubles– traumatic , sexual memories , of course (no spoiler there)–and on she goes, almost completely cured, to become a doctor, herself. Sabina is Freud's id incarnate–raw, unbridled passion and anger ; and Jung, a staid Protestant, constantly searching for power and mystery beyond the tame domestic existence with his rich, heiress wife, finds her completely irresistible. Jung, for his part, gives into his desires. What, if anything, can we do about this? In fairness, since Jung's (and Freud's) time, we've learned that the story is a little more complicated.
Gossip is basically only thing holding society together, says science
Prosocial gossip is so barely gossip. Isn't it more like a news report? If I know someone's being cheated, is there any way I can inform them of this that you can't apply the definition of gossip to? I mean, we're talking first-hand witness report here, of something directly relevant to the hearer's wellbeing in some form or another. By the time you've satisfied the requirement for "prosocial" you've largely departed from the common understanding of the word, and you might as well call it something else or always use the modifier, because it's going to be confusing. However, I note lower on the page there seems to be the implication that "bitch" is a term with some gender associations, so who knows?
101 Simple Truths We Often Forget
post written by: Marc Chernoff Email It‘s not where we stand but in what direction we are moving. Sometimes we find ourselves running in place, struggling to get ahead simply because we forget to address some of the simple truths that govern our potential to make progress. So here’s a quick reminder: The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing. Photo by: Alexander Steinhof If you enjoyed this article, check out our new best-selling book. And get inspiring life tips and quotes in your inbox (it's free)...
A Brief History of the To-Do List and the Psychology of Its Success
by Maria Popova On reconciling the fussy with the fuzzy, or what Benjamin Franklin has to do with Drew Carey. “The list is the origin of culture,” Umberto Eco famously proclaimed. (Leonardo da Vinci, John Lennon, and Woody Guthrie would have all agreed.) But the list, it turns out, might also be the origin of both our highest happiness and our dreariest dissatisfaction. So argue New York Times science writer John Tierney and psychologist Roy F. These anecdotes and pieces of cultural mythology are interwoven with ample psychology experiments from the past century and, ultimately, distilled into insight on how to make the to-list a tool of fulfillment rather than frustration. Franklin, for instance, demonstrated one of the greatest pitfalls of the to-do list: trying to do too much at once, letting different goals come into conflict with one another: Franklin tried a divide-and-conquer approach. The result of conflicting goals, the authors argue, is unhappiness instead of action.
The Minimalist » Blog Archive » Income distribution vs. happiness
Americans generally have more spending power now than 50 years ago, across almost all income levels. But the perception is that lower income families are losing ground. Of course, some are, but generally, pretty much all of us can buy more and better stuff than we ever could in the past. In 1909, many things we consider absolute necessities didn’t even exist. Chart from the Afferent Input blog. A rich class of people are becoming much more wealthy, and most other people are becoming somewhat more wealthy. Recognizing this human frailty – that our built-in happiness meter is relative rather than absolute, and therefore set more by how much stuff we see our neighbors have rather than by how much we have, is the only way to counter its effect. This also explains the discomfort I feel about credit card debt in the US. Have doubts?
