The Reptile Brain Fights Back: Extinction Bursts
Let’s suppose that you’ve got a habit you want to break. You’ve followed the following five habit-breaking rules: 1. Tell a friend you’re...
The Secret Music That's Always Playing in Your Head
Listening to music is one of the most compelling human experiences. Music taps deeply into our sense of feeling, often highlighting and...
Straws, Steps, and the Importance of Thinking Small
There is a famous Arabic proverb where a camel loaded beyond capacity collapses after a single straw too many, hence, ‘the straw that...
Seeing Red, or, The Superpower You May Not Even Know You Have
StartFragmentI don’t need to tell you that sight is important for most people. It is estimated that the brain devotes 50% of its activity...
The Twain Brain, or, Why Smart People do Stupid Things
StartFragment “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” So said Mark Twain, printer, steamboat...
The Anatomy of Fear
By the time our ancestors were roaming the great savannas, alternating between chasing prey and being prey, their systems had already...
Saving Grandma, or: 5 Steps to Dealing With Complex Systems
Last week’s blog dealt with the inherent threat in complex systems, specifically your Grandmother, (or really, anybody’s Grandma) and...
What Your Grandma and Corporations Have in Common
Imagine your grandma just celebrated her 85th birthday. She's beginning to forget things, but her doctor has reassured you that since, if...
Want a Brain Boost? Try a Jog—or a Curry
Exercise: you know you should, and yet for many, vanity might not be enough to get you on the old treadmill first thing in the morning....
The Experiencing Self, or, Why Present-You Hates Past-You
Unlike Calvin here, most of us will probably never get the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation between our current selves and...
