How Badly Adapted We Are to Life on Earth

We’re used to singing the praises of the human mind and body: these are, from many perspectives, truly astonishing pieces of engineering. We have brains capable of doing fractal equations, translating…

How We Prefer to Act Rather Than Think

There’s a fundamental distinction to be made between two kinds of thinking: figuring out what we would like to achieve and working out how to achieve it. Or, put another way,…

How to Live More Wisely Around Our Phones

The dark truth is that it’s become very hard to find anyone (and certainly anything) more interesting than one’s smartphone. This perplexing and troubling realisation has for most of us had…

On Dreaming

Often, as we emerge from sleep in the middle of the night, there’s a dream still vivid and intact in our minds. But even as we try to remember what it…

On the Remarkable Need to Speak

It sounds absurd when stated baldly, but we do not always – at some deep level – understand that we need to speak to those whom we so badly wish would…

Thinking Too Much; and Thinking Too Little

Thinking about ourselves – our feelings, our past, our desires and our hopes – is a hugely tricky task that most of us spend a good deal of effort trying very…