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Psychology, geopolitics, philosophy—and everything in between.
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2,048 readings · 409–420
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding* by David Hume is considered one of the most philosophical and scientific texts ever written, and primarily, it exposes the limits of human rationality through a series of 12…
Hooked: How to Form Habit Building Products is a book that combines insights from psychology to inform us about how we become habituated to technologies – and how we can, in turn, design products that can get users…
In this age of accelerating technological advancement, a peculiar and somewhat disquieting question arises: as we continue to develop and integrate artificial intelligence into our daily lives, could we inadvertently…
On December 5, 1996, Alan Greenspan's phrase "irrational exuberance" resonated globally, reflecting a deep-seated anxiety about the sustainability of soaring stock markets. Markets reacted immediately, with indices…
The problem of self-discipline concerns each person, no matter what their beliefs or background. There is no need to expand on why self-discipline is important. Naturally, many approaches to practicing it have…
Risk Aversion Think of your wealth as a pile of bricks with large bricks as the foundation and with smaller bricks the higher you go. A brick that is removed from the top will be larger than the next brick you can…
In the last few decades, the possibility of downloading our thoughts into machines has been widely discussed. And just as with the internet, and computers, the people who first talked about cyborgs were small in…
In Manias, Panics, Crashes, we are reminded that financial crises are recurring phenomena in market economies, typically arising from speculative manias fueled by credit expansion. While historians view each crisis…
In the realm of cyber warfare, the boundary between science fiction and reality is rapidly dissolving. Nitro Zeus, a code name for a massive cyberattack plan by the United States against Iran, is a stark reminder of…
Happiness The last 500 years have seen breakthroughs in every area of human concern. We have become more scientifically competent, economically prosperous, peaceful, and secure, but are we happier? Historians rarely…
It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of — namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious auto-biography; and moreover that…
Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew Everyone has a weakness. Usually, it is an insecurity, an irrational need, or an emotion. It can even be a secret pleasure. When it has been discovered, it can be used as an…
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