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Can we fake it until we make it?  

It’s the most natural thing in the world – for an American parent especially – to praise a child for her intelligence or talent, rather than for how hard she […]

In Three War Stories, David Mamet explores redemption and forgiveness in the context of conflict. In The Redwing, excerpted here, a 19th Century Secret Service naval officer recounts his own transformations during the course of his service and imprisonment.

So I’m teaching a seminar this semester on Technology, Biotechnology, and Democracy. Its balanced effort, of course, will be show how technology makes our lives both better and worse, as […]

The modern dictator needs only to become a client-state to Russia or China (or to be Russia or China), and there is nothing he can’t get away with. We members of open societies have the power to change that. All we need is the resolve.

In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, two friends, Vladimir and Estragon, endlessly wait by a tree in the moonlight for the arrival of someone they both claim to know but […]

To raise funds needed for renovation, the St. Brother Albert Homeless Shelter in central Poland is offering a course in urban survival, teaching its students how to live in the concrete jungle without money.

When you pay in advance, not only will the meal be more likely to feelfree once it rolls around, you’ll also get the additional benefit of enjoying the anticipation of the meal.

If you look at life satisfaction and what makes people satisfied with their lives, most of it has a lot to do with people’s goals.

Sir Ken Robinson wants to help remedy a dangerous and growing trend in developed countries toward career dissatisfaction and disconnectedness. 

For the reader, art connoisseur, music fan, or student, this is a “money for nothing and your chicks for free” kind of world (Google the lyrics if you’re too young […]

Energy becomes literally the fuel that allows us to fulfill almost all of our dreams and what I point out to people is we do have a squanderable abundance of energy.  It happens to be sunlight. 

Living your dream job has nothing to do with the specifics of the job.  It has to do with the fulfillment that you get from that job.

Everyone should be aware that a multitude of men are either chemically or surgically castrated for a variety of reasons in contemporary Western society.

“I do not know whether I shall return from my long weekend trip alive,” the mathematical psychologist Anatol Rapoport once wrote. “But I do know that the number of traffic […]

Who will win this death match?

There is an economic imperative to have higher engagement at work, so why has it not changed?

Inequality in income and wealth in America has worsened in the last decades. The 15 items here, some monumental and some small, speak to the everyday texture of that inequality, […]

Positive punishment is the classic Skinnerian notion in which a stimulus is applied with the aim of reducing an unwanted behavior. 

According to the biologist’s view, if we are indeed inherently polygamists, we should have never been as happy as we are today because modernity would seem to enable our real nature to express itself. 

Under what circumstances would I agree to disagree?

In the midst of a culture that appraises positivity far above negativity, or even a balanced view of reality, psychologists say now is an equally important time to accept the trials of life for what they are.

For many career seekers, “follow your passion” can be a terrifying piece of advice, mainly because the word passion conjures up images of intense, frenzied activity better suited to an […]

For the past five years, the Catholic presence has been expanding dramatically on the Internet, through a new generation of bloggers who are happy to lobby for the Pope and Christian values.

For Leon Wieseltier, the corrosive effects of modern technology spell the demise of humanity as we know it. I’m not so sure.

There is no circumstance that people could possibly contrive for ourselves which would constitute “having it all”.

A little bit of game theory suggests how Edward Snowden’s odyssey might end.

We live in a country so cool you can take the flag and burn it on stage in Vegas.

Humans are an optimistic bunch. We overestimate desirable traits (humor), skills (driving) and our future states (well-being and health). Worse, we believe that we are immune to these better-than-average errors, […]

You often hear people say there’s going to be this massive maker economy in which everybody’s a designer.  That’s actually not going to happen.