Resolving conflicts has never been easy, but it feels like in a world where you can live in your own world that you never have to talk to someone who ever disagrees with you. Even debates are no longer really two people having a conversation to try to influence each other but rather each person talking to an audience to score points and "own" the...
Read MoreNote: Contentious topics are used for illustrative purposes only; I am not advocating for you to take any specific ethical position. "There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs," is a famous saying about economics and economic policy. It acknowledges the reality that there are benefits and drawbacks to anything in life. Small creatures are...
Read MoreAre you an idiot or a maniac? I know, that's a strange way to start a blog post. But, in all seriousness, it's an interesting dichotomy that shows the ethical continuum that we all use when making decisions and then passing judgment on others for theirs. Let's take a look at this through the lens of two famous stand-up jokes from popular
Read MorePossibly the most surprising, amazing, and contentious finding in the last 20 years of the study of neuroscience is the idea that the brain’s decisions might be made up to 10 seconds before person is consciously aware of it. The most famous popular psychology assertion on the topic of free will comes from Sam Harris, who stated that free will is an...
Read More“Happiness is a choice.” If you’ve ever listened to a self-help guru or optimistic person, you’ll have heard this statement. Many respond with, “Easy for you to say…you have ______. If I had that, I’d be happy, too,” or its opposite, “But you don’t have _______. If you had that, you wouldn’t be happy, either.” To many, happiness seems to be a matte...
Read MoreThere is a trend today that people not-so-affectionately call the “oppression Olympics” where people compete to see who can claim the most victimhood so that they achieve certain benefits such as more power, influence, and control over how others behave in relation to them (full disclosure: I come from a poor background and am guilty of trying to o...
Read More“I don’t care what others think.” It sounds so badass. But it’s definitely not true in an absolute sense. I can attest to this, as having Asperger’s makes me act in socially awkward ways without realizing it. I can’t make eye contact very well, I say inappropriate things without fully realizing it, and I go way overboard explaining things...
Read MoreLonging. We all know the feeling: having a strong desire for something you can’t have. But do you have to feel that way? Let’s explore. I’ve been criticized in the past for stating what is basically common sense—of course, I’ve also had my brushes with people who vehemently oppose my “hot takes” (go figure). One of those biggest hot takes come...
Read MoreYes, I know the title is a little too cute and seemingly paradoxical. But the truth is that happiness is a choice as much as it is a response to external stimuli. Give me a moment to explain how emotions work in humans vs. earlier organisms, and you’ll understand why the title is not a paradox nor a tautology but rather an explanation of—and a pr...
Read MoreDepending on how you count what a “choice” is, you’ll make hundreds of thousands to billions and billions of choices in your lifetime. Choices include the big ones like which school to go to, which jobs to apply for, and whether or not you marry or reproduce as well as the little ones like where you focus your attention at any given time or whethe...
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