A Story of Stories

Family glue is strongest between parents and children, because genes “know” that copies of themselves live in their container’s direct progeny. Genes also have us selfishly caring about the well-being of siblings and nieces and nephews because a very similar version of themselves lives in them—but we don’t care quite as much about these people as w... See more

We talked about emergence and how the giant is what humanity looks like a few floors up the tower from the individual.

The Story Virus

Every night after the Johnsons put Lulu to bed, she waits until they leave the room and then she crawls out the window to go riding around with the bad baby (Lulu’s friend) who lives down the block.

Delusion is what happens when our reason bouncer fails as the gatekeeper to our beliefs—when our imagination is stronger than our judgment. It might be the most universal human quality. And it adds a whole other component to the environment portion of our behavior equation.

Imagination allows you to consider an outlandish conspiracy theory—reason allows you to reject it as truth.

Values and morals have the power to override a human’s innate drives. Where traits like honesty, integrity, generosity, propriety, respect, loyalty, or kindness are valued, people will behave differently than where they’re not.

And Moochie shapes right up.

If you want to change someone’s behavior, easier than altering their motivation or changing their actual environment is altering their perception of reality. This third way of manipulating a human is a shortcut—a cheat—made possible by one of human evolution’s best tricks:Delusion.