Category: Life lessons — 218
A day with no reporting
Society quickly turns even rest into a project: useful, attractive, planned in advance and fit to be reported on. Free time starts working a second shift. You have to rest…
Success With a Long List of Co-Authors
The culture of success likes one hero in the centre of the frame. The team, the infrastructure, the teachers, the lucky moment and other people’s unnoticed work usually stay outside…
The dangerous “we”
People need belonging. Family, city, language, profession, club and country give connections, traditions and the ability to act together. Without a “we” it would be hard to build anything larger…
Attending Your Own Life
Most of the day passes on autopilot. We walk a familiar route, eat while scrolling a screen, talk while preparing the reply in advance, and notice our own state only…
Freedom and a Soft Chair
The romantic image of freedom demands throwing over stability for the open road; everyday common sense demands holding on to comfort at any cost. In reality comfort can both widen…
Power Without a Diagnosis
Popular talk about power loves medical labels: the boss is a narcissist, the politician a psychopath, the manager a sociopath. A diagnosis handed out by job title helps little; observable…
A Complaint Should Know What It Wants
A culture of toughness suggests not complaining, so as not to look weak. That ban usually produces not fortitude but people who stay silent until they blow up. A complaint…
Life is worth more than property
The morality of disaster says things are worth nothing, life is what matters. In a direct choice that is true, but a house, documents and savings hold safety, memory and…
The Fish Outside the School
A group saves you effort. If everyone else is running, there is probably a reason. If everyone picks one road, it may well be safer. Following the majority is often…
Ten Years Later
An event that fills the whole inner screen today may be one line a few years from now. Daniel Gilbert and his colleagues studied “affective forecasting” — the ability to…
If you get lost
Hiking folklore offers a simple direction: go down to water, climb higher, or follow the river. Universal advice sounds confident precisely because it takes no account of the actual terrain.…
Joy, happiness and the ability to choose
Joy is an experience. Happiness is a broader assessment of a life. Freedom of choice is one of its conditions, but not the only one. In the famous study by…
Interest on an Advantage
A small advantage can grow. The sociologist of science Robert Merton called cumulative advantage the “Matthew effect”: a recognized researcher gets more attention and credit than a less known colleague…
Errors built into thinking
The brain does not merely err from time to time. It errs in predictable ways. The 1974 paper by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman did not begin by accusing people…
Environment Beats Character
Motivation is usually looked for inside the person and its presence explained by strength of character. It is periodically absent there without explanation, while the surrounding environment votes daily for…
First aid before help arrives
Basic first aid is a practical skill, and it is better learned on a certified in-person course. The history of medicine is full of rules that became obvious only after…
Someone Else’s Happiness, Left Unrepaired
A caring culture easily passes control off as love: if you know what would be better for a person, you are obliged to make him do the right thing. But…
People and Logos
The ability to recognise people and remember how they behave transfers easily to symbols. A brand acquires a character: reliable, prestigious, bold, green. A politician becomes a familiar face, though…
Discomfort without the cult
Some public voices declare any discomfort a trauma, others a necessary price of growth. Both formulas economise on distinctions: not all discomfort is harmful and not all suffering is useful.…
An Expert Is Not an Oracle
Society swings between blind trust in anyone with a diploma and proud faith in its own research. An expert is not an oracle, but that does not make a random…