I love to travel, try new foods, ingest caffeine, and watch political news coverage. A psychologist by training trying to bring a little common sense to it all.
There’s a particular kind of human arrogance that assumes insight belongs exclusively to us; along with taxes, existential dread, and the ability to overanalyze text messages. For a long time, scientists mostly agreed. Sure, animals could learn. They could try things, fail, try again. Trial and error. The […]
At approximately 2:00 a.m., which, clinically speaking, is the hour when good decisions go to die, a group of six individuals reportedly emerged from a manhole in Brooklyn. Let me repeat that. They didn’t open the manhole and go down. They came up. Like a plot twist.Like a […]
You really can’t make this stuff up anymore. Or rather, you can, and apparently people are doing so with admirable commitment and a suspicious amount of PowerPoint. This week’s dispatch from the “Is This Real Life or Did I Fall Asleep on the Remote?” files includes a story […]
Lately, I’ve been reading about so-called “dark personality traits.” Not villains-with-capes dark. More like everyday-people-with-good-lighting dark. Psychology tends to group them into a familiar trio: narcissism (I’m the main character), Machiavellianism (I’ll move the pieces), and psychopathy (I don’t feel much about it either way). Collectively, they’ve earned […]
I recently fell down a very specific internet rabbit hole, courtesy of a quick, suspiciously casual blurb about something called “alpine divorce.” The premise? One partner takes the other on a scenic hike and gently (or not so gently) bumps them off a cliff. We’ll, dumps them. Let […]
And just like that May is over. My birthday month. My personal New Year. My annual, slightly delusional belief that the universe revolves, briefly but meaningfully, around me. May, you were glorious. You showed up like a main character that was blossoming, dramatic and slightly unhinged in your […]
Monday’s clinically questionable to-do list 1. Bite off more than I can chew. (Because self-awareness is for Tuesday.)2. Build Rome in one day. (Surely they just lacked proper project management.)3. Poke a bear with a stick. (My core competency. My brand, really.)4. Beat a dead horse. (Actually, this […]
I had a small existential crisis in a restaurant bathroom recently. Not the dramatic kind. There were no tears, no life reevaluation. It was just a quiet, philosophical pause while staring at a dispenser labeled “Healthy Soap.” Now, I’m no contrarian. I’m broadly pro-health. I support vitamins. I […]
I recently learned about something called the 37% rule, which sounds less like a mathematical theory and more like a suspicious diet plan. Apparently, it comes from the optimal stopping problem, which is a very polite, academic way of saying: “How long should I keep scrolling before I […]
I took a last-minute trip to St. Lucia because life, lately, has been “character-building” (which is code for mildly chaotic with a side of existential fatigue). St. Lucia, as it turns out, does not care about your problems. It is 84 degrees, unapologetically beautiful, and fully committed to […]
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