Recent quotes:
Is There Such a Thing as an “American Sniper Crowd”? - beBee Producer
The quandary we face: confidence needs to be manufactured. Uncertainty and fear on the other hand seep unbidden into us all the time.David Eagleman interview: 'It's a mistake to think of ourselves as individuals' | Profiles | News | The Independent
It's a mistake to think of ourselves as individuals Our brains are like a neural parliament: we've got all these competing political parties fighting for control.Can't Vacation? Here's the Science of How to Recharge Fast | Psychology Today
Research by Sabine Sonnentag suggests that detaching from work is essential to enhanced productivity. Her work has shown that, while people who do not detach from work suffering from greater levels of exhaustion, those who do recover from job stress and are more likely to have higher engagement levels at work.Don't Believe In Evolution? Try Thinking Harder : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR
Gervais found a statistically significant relationship between the extent to which individuals exhibited a more analytic style and their endorsement of evolution. Importantly, the relationship remained significant even when controlling for other variables that predict evolutionary beliefs, including belief in God, religious upbringing and political conservatism.A Religion for the Nonreligious | Wait But Why
The battle of the Higher Being against the animals—of trying to see through the fog to clarity—is the core internal human struggle.Taming the Mammoth: Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think | Wait But Why
Our bodies and minds are built to live in a tribe in 50,000BC, which leaves modern humans with a number of unfortunate traits, one of which is a fixation with tribal-style social survival in a world where social survival is no longer a real concept. We’re all here in 2014, accompanied by a large, hungry, and easily freaked-out woolly mammoth who still thinks it’s 50,000BC.BBC News - How random is random on your music player?
Users were complaining in their droves, he said, that Spotify was somehow forcing music upon them. Conspiracies included the idea that record labels had struck up some kind of deal to make sure some artists are heard more than others. Mr Zafar dismissed that thought as hogwash. "The problem is that, to humans, truly random does not feel random," said Mattias Johansson, a Spotify software engineerThe False Narratives We Tell Ourselves - Rand's Blog
Mythical versions of the past exist for a reason. Sometimes they’re how we cover up our failings and make our actions seem right and sensible to ourselves and to those with whom we share. Sometimes, like with me, they’re how we absolve circumstances and other people of blame so we can heap it all on ourselves and believe the dangerous lie that we’re totally in control. And sometimes they’re just the unfortunate results of having a bad memory, and filling in the missing gaps.Sam Harris on Spirituality without Religion, Happiness, and How to Cultivate the Art of Presence | Brain Pickings
I am often asked what will replace organized religion. The answer, I believe, is nothing and everything. Nothing need replace its ludicrous and divisive doctrines — such as the idea that Jesus will return to earth and hurl unbelievers into a lake of fire, or that death in defense of Islam is the highest good. These are terrifying and debasing fictions. But what about love, compassion, moral goodness, and self-transcendence? Many people still imagine that religion is the true repository of these virtues. To change this, we must talk about the full range of human experience in a way that is as free of dogma as the best science already is.Sam Harris on Spirituality without Religion, Happiness, and How to Cultivate the Art of Presence | Brain Pickings
Most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now. Acknowledging that this is the structure of the game we are playing allows us to play it differently. How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience and, therefore, the quality of our lives.
The research showed us that far from distracting us from more serious things, these viral pictures, videos, and memes reconnect us to an essential part of ourselves.