Straightforward vs. Complicated People
A basic distinction in humans is between those who are simple and straightforward to deal with – and those who are – as we tend to be reminded when we interact…
Self-Knowledge: Behaviours
- 01. Straightforward vs. Complicated People
- 02. Reasons to Give Up on Perfection
- 03. The Need for a Cry
- 04. On Confinement
- 05. The Importance of Singing Badly
- 06. You Don't Need Permission
- 07. On Feeling Stuck
- 08. Am I Paranoid?
- 09. Learning to Be More Selfish
- 10. Learning How to Be Angry
- 11. Why We're All Liars
- 12. Are You a Masochist?
- 13. How Badly Adapted We Are to Life on Earth
- 14. How We Prefer to Act Rather Than Think
- 15. How to Live More Wisely Around Our Phones
- 16. On Dreaming
- 17. On the Remarkable Need to Speak
- 18. Thinking Too Much; and Thinking Too Little
- 19. On Nagging
- 20. The Prevention of Suicide
- 21. On Getting an Early Night
- 22. Why We Eat Too Much
- 23. On Taking Drugs
- 24. On Perfectionism
- 25. On Procrastination
Reasons to Give Up on Perfection
Part of our problem as a species is that we’re troublingly good at making things perfect. We can set our minds on an extraordinary goal and – with heroic sacrifice, thousands…
The Need for a Cry
One of the wisest things about young children is that they have no shame or compunction whatsoever about bursting into tears, perhaps because they have a more accurate and less pride-filled…
On Confinement
Being confined at home gives us a range of curious benefits. The first is an encouragement to think. Whatever we like to believe, few of us do much of the solitary…
The Importance of Singing Badly
Most of what we would really like to do is annihilated long before its possible birth by a relentlessly forensic and masochistic sense of our own incompetence. We can’t possibly invite…
You Don't Need Permission
When we first arrive on the earth, nothing is more alien to our minds than the idea of needing permission. We simply try to do whatever we want: when the carpet…