Brianne Johnson

If intelligence is no longer measured by the depth of our understanding but by the speed of our retrieval, are we truly expanding our cognitive potential—or simply surrendering to the illusion of knowing?

Often we fail to improve our lives simply because things don't get bad enough. If your new job is hell, you’ll leave it, but if it’s just unsatisfying, you’ll likely grind it out. Thus, small problems often threaten our quality of life more than big ones.

Destruction and renewal are part of the same cycle. Indigenous knowledge has always understood this. It’s not about avoiding collapse – it’s about preparing for regeneration.

– Mellisa K. Nelson

The internet has conditioned us to constantly seek new information, as if becoming a sponge of bad news will eventually yield the final piece of a puzzle. But there is also such a thing as having enough information.

True teachers are called into being by the contradictions generated by civilization… We need them

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

– John Steinbeck

Members of all-male groups are more prone to lying than groups comprised of both men and women. When the first woman joins an all-male group, the rate of lying plummets.

This idea of progress acknowledges that as soon as we have something, however well it meets our original desires, we see its flaws. ‘Form follows failure’, in the words of civil engineering professor Henry Petroski. Dissatisfaction drives progress. ‘Since nothing is perfect’, writes Petroski, ‘and, indeed, since even our ideas of perfection are not... See more