In a recent newsletter, “The Shopping Cure,” Anne Helen Petersen explored the compulsion to buy and accumulate stuff that’s been fostered by technologies of frictionless consumption. Every conceivable activity or hobby one sets out to enjoy becomes an occasion to buy stuff: “They transform from sites of actual pleasure and diversion to means of

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Feel empowered yet? No? That’s because contrary to what your TV tells you America does not run on Dunkin. It runs on fear. Studies have shown that the vast majority of consumer purchases are driven by emotional responses rather necessity, the largest driver being the primal fear of missing out that “taps into our evolutionary need for resource... See more

It’s amazing how many people buy stuff or eat just because they are bored. Boredom has become the most expensive emotion of our time, an invisible tax that empties wallets, fills closets, and adds kilograms. What people mistake for hunger or desire is often just the absence of purpose, a restlessness looking for a cheap thrill. If you can learn to... See more