psychology

Freedom grants the opportunity for greater meaning, but by itself there is nothing necessarily meaningful about it. Ultimately, the only way to achieve meaning and a sense of importance in one’s life is through a rejection of alternatives, a narrowing of freedom, a choice of commitment to one place, one belief, or (gulp) one person.

This pining for the banished is known as the Romeo and Juliet effect , so named because parents who erect barriers to hinder the romantic relationships of their children often only manage to deepen the lovers’ attraction. One study of Colorado couples found that when the parents tried to interfere with their relationship, feelings of love and

That’s simply reality: if it feels like it’s you versus the world, chances are it’s really just you versus yourself.

Chances are, somewhere between the second and third lists of data, you switched your allegiance from Phone B to Phone A. And yet the two phones didn’t change in the least. All that did was the information that you were aware of. This is known as omission neglect. We fail to note what we do not perceive up front, and we fail to inquire further or to

Happiness comes from solving problems. The keyword here is “solving.” If you’re avoiding your problems or feel like you don’t have any problems, then you’re going to make yourself miserable. If you feel like you have problems that you can’t solve, you will likewise make yourself miserable. The secret sauce is in the solving of the problems, not in

Subjective confidence in a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that this judgment is correct. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and the cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of uncertainty seriously,

Let’s say the first layer of the self-awareness onion is a simple understanding of one’s emotions. “This is when I feel happy.” “This makes me feel sad.” “This gives me hope.”

n a less tragic setting, this dynamic is also why marketers often use advertisements featuring (mostly fake) interviews with “regular people on the street” who endorse a product. “Ordinary people” comprise the largest potential market for any product, and they value an endorsement by a person who seems similar to themselves.

To avoid falling for

Reflexive thinkers want Obvious content. Reflective thinkers want Non-Obvious content.