psychology

This is not an exhaustive list, but you can see the pattern: An elitist, pro-Western, anti-Islamic leader, propped up by the US, initially succeeded in modernizing the economy, but hit some roadblocks and didn’t act decisively, letting the opposition take over.

Ninth, because the Shah didn’t have riot police, he frequently deployed the army to stop demonstrations, but the army was not prepared for that, and sometimes demonstrators were killed. This fired people up against the regime, but Pahlavi didn’t want to overuse force. The result was a deployment of the army who couldn’t use its weapons to quell dis

If you want to change the world, you’ll need to be deeply connected with other humans. If you want to be a part of a high-performing team, you’ll need to be deeply connected with other humans.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development—the world’s longest-running longitudinal study, tracking people since 1938—found that the single strongest predictor of both happiness and physical health in old age was the warmth of participants’ close relationships. In fact, quality of connection at age 50 predicted health at 80 better than cholesterol leve

While people do grow attached to chatbots and develop bonds that soothe loneliness, these connections are fundamentally parasocial and transactional: The flow of care moves in one direction; AI has no skin in the game. Deep connection demands mutual, embodied relational presence—nervous systems coregulating through micro-expressions, tone shifts, a

Studies show that teams whose members feel safe to speak up learn faster and hit their targets more often. Google’s Project Aristotle, which set out to understand what made teams successful, found that of all variables studied, psychological safety was the number-one predictor of high-performing teams.

Connection: Vulnerability, impartiality, empathy, and wonder

The majority of us have been taught that connection is earned through achievement. We believe that once we become successful, smart, or generous enough, we’ll be worthy of connection.

But people don’t want you to be perfect. They want to be connected to you.

Discernment goes beyond what is true in the stacks of data. It is the ability to see things clearly and zero in on what matters.

What most people don’t realize is that your relationship with yourself sets the tone for everything else. If you don’t trust yourself, you won’t trust your team. If you shut down your own desires, you’ll feel resentful of

Indeed, the two building blocks of a company are (1) decisions and (2) relationships. Emotional clarity underpins both of these. It’s why people like Altman hire me, because they see emotional clarity as “[o]ne of the most critical skills in a post-AGI world.”