Sublime

The most interesting finding thus far in neuro-pricing research is that price information activates the brain’s pain center

The mad man is he who allows his subconscious mind to dominate all his thinking.

In The True Believer, which is one of the best books on how mass movements are created, author Eric Hoffer writes, “The practical organization offers opportunities for self-advancement.

“I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote that one should never trust people who claim they’re normal. It’s in one of his novels.”

The non-linear pop.

Mastery and competence are dramatically devalued at the expense of what Sennett calls “cooperation,” presumably unintentionally echoing Whyte’s far more blatant derision in using this word, but which we are happy to characterize more bluntly as manipulation.

A Sociopath with an idea recruits just enough Losers to kick off the cycle. As it grows, it requires a Clueless layer to turn it into a controlled reaction, rather than a runaway explosion. Eventually, as value hits diminishing returns, both the Sociopaths and Losers make their exits, and the Clueless start to dominate. Finally, the hollow brittle

David Barlow. He was (and still is) one of the premiere anxiety researchers on the planet.