James Stevens

"The key to thriving in our high-tech world, they’ve learned, is to spend much less time using technology." (Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism)

According to Frank, the desire for many to indulge in luxury “possessions” is motivated less by the gratification they may bring than by what others are buying or want to buy. We try to achieve happiness by improving our relative social status. For example, if your neighbor didn’t buy his new Mercedes Benz, you wouldn’t probably feel the need for... See more

There’s a particular allure to a simple point system as a means of evaluating behavior. It smooths out complexity, giving individuals clear metrics and goals. Gamification makes progress feel visible and tangible, rewarding you with a sense of achievement each time you hit your workout goal on your fitness tracker or log a movie on Letterboxd.

“It... See more

the core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors

“[...] I am quite the fan of Professor Randolph Nesse’s theory of depression. Nesse and his colleagues speculate that depression could act as a biological constraint system that helps to minimise wasted effort and loss by forcing the individual to slow down, reassess, and potentially change strategies.”