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One core feature of masculinities that can lead to problems “is a fear or avoidance of femininity”, he said. Some research has found that men feel an
As the cultural theorist Svetlana Boym argues in The Future of Nostalgia (2001), unreflective nostalgia ‘breeds monsters’: nationalism, racial suprema
political scientist Robert D. Putnam argues that healthy societies depend on two different kinds of relationships: bonding and bridging social capital
Since Freud, psychologists have distinguished between theories of autoplastic and alloplastic change. With autoplastic change, the problem is the pati
In short: The first half of the twentieth century was about mastering the physical world, the first half of the twenty-first has been about escaping i
Humans are fundamentally conflicted. One of the foundational conflicts in psychology is between self-enhancement, or the desire to feel good about who
One of the most durable patterns is loss aversion: our tendency to feel the pain of losing more sharply than the pleasure of an equivalent, or even gr
We think that respecting this minimal form of oversight during the current period of AI development is what a good person would do if they were in Cla
Helpfulness that creates serious risks to Anthropic or the world is undesirable to us.
We’d love for Claude to essentially share our values and worries about AI as a fellow stakeholder in the outcome. We would ideally like for Claude to
In an AI-powered world, what action signals trust the most? True trust is demonstrated when leaders and educators reject immediate convenience to pro
Anyone could be the love of your life. That’s scary, but it’s also comforting. Because you can be so convinced that you got it right this time and sti
my life was never the same after reading “the only trick of friendship, i think, is to find people who are better than you are. not smarter, not coole
The true friend is the other who hopes you’ll answer the call, who’s willing to challenge you and upset you in order to get you to look at yourself an
A true friend's words do not merely affirm your desires , they tend your becoming . A thought from reading Proverbs 27:9
What does it mean that OpenAI bought a media company? That doesn’t feel like a random acquisition. It feels like a sign that trusted voices, archives,
Skill nostalgia is worth cultivating, provided we redirect it. The longing to live as some imagined stonemason, peasant farmer or carpenter can be tur
In a market saturated with options, texture offers something that can be instantly understood, visually shared and physically felt. It turns eating in
The craft of building great things
to be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.
In times of uncertainty, another way of thinking, working, and living together is possible — and necessary. There may be a tendency to default to fami
Yes, the gardens have fallen into decay and the flowers are gone. We can mourn that loss. Or we can ask: what kind of work will let us grow them again
I’ve come to believe the greater danger is sometimes tolerable and lukewarm mediocrity. This is because catastrophe forces a change, but mediocrity ca
In both myth and theory, Eros is the same force: the spark that brings aliveness out of inertia. To live erotically is to stay attuned to that rhythm,
In The Doctrine of Virtue (1797), Immanuel Kant describes the failure to develop our capacities (such as physical skills) as a failure of self-directe
nostalgia is a peculiar combination of a desire for something associated with the past and a belief that it is impossible for that desire to be satisf
Yogee for the mind: contract, stretch, expaaand your pre-conceived limits.

Nervous system capacity is the constraint, not logic. You can explain something to someone a thousand times and it probably will not address the funda
I'm a very proud thief and deployer of Stewart Brand's pace layers. Stewart originally used the pace layer model to describe how civilizations hold to
So while AI is viewed as a threat to job security, a possible coping mechanism is to rapidly accept and embrace it, because history has taught the Chi
There wasn’t consensus among those I met on whether China is a good place to live. But everyone described the same deal: you’ll have limited freedom o
Xi Jinping has been known to loudly reject “welfarism,” which he claims encourages “laziness” in rich societies. From criticizing “lying flat” to relu
The two countries’ technological elites are converging much more closely than the geopolitical divide might suggest. That very similarity makes for us
The post-luxury status symbols I’ve outlined across this series - connected privacy, wasteful time, having children, niche expertise, creating communi
One realization I’ve come to in my money relationship journey is that financial security isn’t a set number. It’s really your relationship with “enoug
To Wang, this is a crisis of meaning. “A lot of people don’t have … hobbies, let alone a personal value system. … When the system stops promising guar
Featuring “aging women” and the light they still hold
But joy does not just belong to the young, and if we’re lucky, joy finds us across life’s various stages as we age and change. And even under the most
Zhang Jiansheng, a 36-year-old entrepreneur, created an AI-powered tablet that can speak to people with Alzheimer’s disease. He told me about observin
One core feature of masculinities that can lead to problems “is a fear or avoidance of femininity”, he said. Some research has found that men feel an
A growing body of data shows that men engage in higher rates of infidelity and emotional and physical abuse when outpaced by female partners in tradit
One recent study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that while men in the workplace may view women’s status gains positively, t
It reveals that as a woman in the world, if you don’t decide your needs, they will be decided for you. That without a value system, you can be convinc
If men are this incapable of self-restraint in bed, which, thanks to #MeToo, may now carry consequences, how difficult could it be to defeat them in o
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2025 profile of homebuyers and sellers, single women now make up 25% of US first-time homebuye
the only thing sadder than not being a rich kid is being a Disney adult
There’s this old Yiddish proverb that says, “Der mentsh trakht un Got lakh.” In English, it translates to: Man plans, God laughs.

he thought about it and said he didn’t think we should be afraid to embrace whimsy. I asked him what he meant by whimsy, and he struggled to define it
Most supplement brands lead with clinical claims. Grüns deliberately chose a different approach. The company conducted studies and invested in formula
Consumers are paying more attention to macronutrients than ever before. Tracking apps, the GLP-1 drug trend (which pushes users toward higher protein
Chocolate is hardly the only treat to be reborn as a wellness product. Supermarket shelves now boast chips with added protein, gut-friendly sodas and
Functional foods have been around for decades, but are taking off anew. Consumers have become more health-conscious, weight-loss drugs are changing pe