Andrew McCluskey

The most human part of humanity is not our animal instincts nor our computer-like rationality, but our mutual social creation of meanings and values around arbitrary choices.

“The density is what comes with [inner-city living] and what density means for me on a day-to-day basis is cups of tea at 9:30pm without planning. It’s spontaneity of social life. I don’t have to plan to catch up with friends. Friends with kids can put their kids to bed and we can go and hang out with them with no plans. So I have a life that is... See more

The Wundt curve shows that overly simple and predictable stimuli provide only neutral hedonic value. Positive hedonic value requires stimuli that are somewhat novel/complex/ambiguous. Too much novelty or complexity, however, leads to negative hedonic value. There is, then, a “sweet spot” for the right amount of stimulus novelty/complexity: slightly... See more

My generic career advice for young people is that if at all possible, you should aim to work on something that no one has a word for. Spend your energies where we don’t have a name for what you are doing, where it takes a while to explain to your mother what it is you do. When you are ahead of language, that means you are in a spot where it is

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