Laura Pike Seeley
@laurapikeseeley
Laura Pike Seeley
Nowadays, whenever I feel scared in the face of a decision and yearn for the safety of an optimizing formula, I try to remind myself that there’s another way of feeling safe. It’s not about perfection, about invulnerability, about control. It’s about leaning into the fact that we are imperfect and vulnerable creatures and that even when we’re tryin... See more
You can’t optimize your way to being a good person
The more I think about it, the more I think this is why so many of us, myself included, are attracted to data-based optimization. We’re painfully aware that we are vulnerable, fallible creatures. Our shame about that is reflected in Western religious traditions: The Bible tells us that upon first creating the world, God “saw that it was good,” but ... See more
You can’t optimize your way to being a good person
Both public and private failures bring their own problems and their own kinds of pain. But private failure is unique in that it often depends on your own, unseen reserves of resilience and fortitude. It is a kind of test between yourself and yourself, with yourself as the judge. And so, it’s easy to cheat. It’s easy to give up and claim it as a win... See more
Jonny Thomson • How the “Two-Day Rule” Can Make Your Daily Work-Life Much Easier
Scientists have demonstrated that, as the years go by, much of what we think we remember is false. It seems our brains can't store every detail we experience, so we recall the gist of events — enough to create a story that makes sense to us. Every time we recall a story or tell it to others, we change small bits depending on whether our audience lo... See more
We change our memories each time we recall them, but that doesn’t mean we’re lying
memory and Neuroscience
Distractions divert you from your goals, while opportunities align with and propel you toward them. For example, Americans spend an average of 11 hours daily consuming media, much of which is unproductive noise. To succeed, creators and entrepreneurs must take intentional control of their inputs, focusing on content and activities that support thei... See more
How To Know What Is A Distraction vs. An Opportunity
Emotional regulation is the process of experiencing an emotion, allowing the sensations to pass through the body (rather than trying to distract oneself with, say, drugs or alcohol or an iPhone or food), identifying it (‘I am angry right now’ or ‘I am sad’), and breathing through it until it eventually passes. The practise of emotional regulation e
... See moreNicole LePera • How To Do The Work: Recognise Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self
Like many people I thought Covid, with its stopped clock and blunt force, would bring a major reckoning. A reckoning with small things, like what we wear, and with large things, too – how we relate to each other, for example, how we consume and, crucially, how we work. But what seemed to happen, and very quickly, was that people rushed back to try ... See more
Eva Wiseman • Employees are being marched back to the office. But why? | Eva Wiseman
“Worry can become like a bad habit of the mind. The rule of neuroplasticity—that our brain keeps changing based on our repeated activity—says that whatever we do a lot we will get better at. So if we worry a lot, we will get really good at worrying.” In other words, once you start worrying about something, it can be hard to stop.
Emily Laurence • How to Be More Present
Creativity and Disruption: Creativity is described as emerging from the disruption of these predictive models. When our expectations are challenged or disrupted, it can lead to new ways of thinking and innovative ideas.
Balance Between Order and Chaos: The balance between order (predictive models) and chaos (disruption) is crucial for fostering creativity. Too much order can stifle creativity, while too much chaos can lead to confusion and lack of direction.