psychology

He must be mindful of even those conclusions that he reached mindlessly,

If you want to feel your positive memories more intensely, you can simply move them closer to you in your mind’s eye. If you want difficult memories to have less intensity, you can just move them farther away from you.

Unfairly imposing losses on people can be risky if the victims are in a position to retaliate.

As a character in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan replies when told of the theory of Pythagoras that the earth is round and revolves around the sun: “What an utter fool! Couldn’t he use his eyes?”

Subjects’ unwillingness to deduce the particular from the general was matched only by their willingness to infer the general from the particular.

Social support provides even more neurochemistry, which produces an even greater boost in intrinsic motivation. More crucially, other people provide actual help. Financial, physical, intellectual, creative, emotional—they all matter. Simply put, on the road to impossible, we’re going to need all the help we can get.

Pessimists outperform optimists in law school.

Simply put, we let our own personal past experience guide what we perceive to be possible. Our repertoire becomes an anchor of sorts; it is our reasoning starting point, our place of departure for any further thoughts.

But the influence of the frontier doesn't end at the individual. The frontier also shapes the cultures of the tribes who inhabit it.

The most striking effect is forcing solidarity. Out on the fringe, short on resources and surrounded by wilderness and potential enemies, a tribe must either unite or perish. Most tribes — and certainly all the