psychology

A frontier situation generates a psychological orientation toward the frontier on the part of the people engaged in conquering it, endowing them with the "frontier spirit."

‘Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love,’ and a misunderstanding is never ended by an argument but by tact, diplomacy, conciliation and a sympathetic desire to see the other person’s viewpoint.

The modern emphasis on multitasking plays into our natural tendencies quite well, often in frustrating ways. Every new input, every new demand that we place on our attention is like a possible predator: Oooh, says the brain. Maybe I should pay attention to that instead.

People are so proud of their names that they strive to perpetuate them at any cost.

going and convince others to join our cause, but negativity and pessimism help us see problems so we can make them better. Yes, the former feel much better, but both are necessary.

You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.

What you need is passion, which provides a much greater dopamine boost. Often, you can find your passions by looking for intersections among your curiosities. Let’s say one of your curiosities is the left-tackle football position. Another is the potential for using grasshoppers as a sustainable food source. Putting these two together, your passion

feeling stupid for not having understood something before just shows that you are now cleverer than you were then.

For the first time in evolutionary history, one individual could give any of a variety of resources without actually giving them away. The result was the lowering of the natural inhibitions against transactions that must be begun by one person’s providing personal resources to another. Sophisticated and coordinated systems of aid, gift giving,