When people are frustrated with a video game, most people love a good cheat code to get through it. Boss beating you up? Infinite health prevents you from dying. Run out of ammunition? Infinite ammo code to allow you to destroy everything from hundreds of feet away. Can’t get past a difficult platforming stage? Use a cheat to jump, fly, or even...
Read MoreIt's a common question that people ask to generate discussion, especially in the modern technological era. Do we live in a simulation? Is everything around us actually real? It sounds like a fun thought experiment about how the universe we live in came to be and whether it is as substantial as we perceive it. However, people are usually asking...
Read MoreOne of my favorite clichés from 80s movies is the teacher/mentor figure in the movie saying, “Again.” Whether it was a martial arts film, a military film, or any other kind of film where the hero is training under the tutelage of an elder master, it was always a scene that caused mixed feelings in the audience: satisfaction that the hero...
Read MoreThere is a huge irony regarding confirmation bias: people are subject to it when they are not aware of it, and they are still subject to it when they are aware of it (arguably more so). There’s a lot of talk about confirmation bias today thanks to GenAI tools being taught to be agreeable (they aren’t as agreeable as people claim, though—they...
Read MoreThanks to natural selection, the organisms that are fit enough to reproduce before they die are the ones whose genes carry on to the next generation. In the wild, this meant the ability to fend off threats, find food, build and maintain shelter, and demonstrate capability to potential mates. However, since the evolution of humans into civilized...
Read MoreAnyone who has ever slowed their driving speed down around a police car or watched their favorite sports team choke in a high-pressure situation knows that people watching you can affect your behavior. You may also be familiar with some of the basics of how people influence each other psychologically, from peer pressure to self-fulfilling...
Read MoreThe number of sales that a GTA (Grand Theft Auto) game gets might be alarming to responsible adults who wonder why players take glee in shooting people and taking money from their corpses. Similarly, playing a game where you continuously camp the enemy respawning area, kill spawning players, and then teabag their dead bodies might seem like a bad...
Read More“The meaning of life is to be happy.” You’ve probably heard that many times in your life, and it’s incorrect. A more accurate statement would be, “The meaning of life is to do things that make you happy.” It’s still possibly misleading, but at least it’s more accurate. Happiness is a feedback mechanism, not a goal. You can always tell the...
Read MoreLike many things in life, extreme or absolute thinking can be detrimental. One more recent example is the idea of inclusion—everyone should feel included. Now, this idea comes from a well-meaning place, as before groups of people were excluded for the arbitrary reason of their race, sex, or country of origin. However, there is a trade-off to...
Read MoreThere is a popular debate* on social media these days between morale absolutism and moral relativism. The idea is that you either believe there is such a thing as objective morality or if you think it’s relative to a culture. There’s the extreme example of people saying, “Hitler thought he was doing good,” to point out the fact that morals are...
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