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Jag Bhalla

Science Writer, Blogger, and Essayist

Jag Bhalla is a writer and entrepreneur. Current projects include this "Thought Fix" blog series for Big Think. And NanoSalad a zero-prep way to zap veggie gaps (by BodZoo LLC, a future-friendly, basic-by-design business, see www.bodzoo.com for further details). Prior projects include "Errors We Live By," a series of short exoteric essays exposing errors in the big ideas running our lives. And I'm Not Hanging Noodles On Your Ears, a surreptitious science gift book from National Geographic Books, which explains his twitter handle @hangingnoodles.


Two of America’s core values—democracy and meritocracy—seem increasingly conflicted and confused. Let’s clarify how they’re supposed to work, using Lincoln’s tyranny test. 
How we talk about love has become blurry “low resolution language” (it’s life-organizing force is often dissipated on trifles). But looking at richer love language can help us improve our aim. And remind us that universal human rights came from a special kind of love that we all need.  
We often now picture our minds in unsound ways. They’re built to resonate to poetry. We’ve all but lost the memory of poetry’s historic role in molding minds (that’s the unsung pretext of Plato’s poetry ban). Poetry is a key cognitive technology , so powerful it was the Internet of its time. 
Happiness has gotten confusing (even puzzling our smartest scientists). “Bentham’s bucket error” is to blame, but “Plato’s Pastry” and a rare case of reality in Freud can help. It’s time happiness got less kid-and-id-centirc.