Occasionally Moose have some interesting ideas; I write them down...
The more I practise as a psychologist, the less I’m convinced that humans are everything we think we are. In fact, I’m more and more sure that we’re a walking bundle of illusion. This notion has been worrying me lately, because the fact that we Read More …
This week, I’m typing in pain. A little mountain biking crash on the weekend has left me with some very bruised ribs. The last few days of responding to my pain has got me thinking about something that I’ve been thinking about for some time, Read More …
This week I’m going to continue the articles on athletic arrogance as a performance hack. Initially, this line of thinking came from my speculations about how we hack our neurological limitations, using behavioural ‘software patches’, to increase our ability to perform. In this case, I Read More …
I’m going to take a pause between my articles on arrogance (here and here – part 3 coming next time) this week, because I had an experience last week that got me thinking and that I’d really like to share. So, if you know me Read More …
Last week I wrote about elite athlete “arrogance” with the suggestion that it’s actually a learned performance hack to help athletes trust “expert systems” under pressure. The more I thought about this though, the more I realised that it’s not just used by athletes, and that Read More …
I wanted to do something a little different today. Most of my blog posts so far have focused on the clinical/neuropsych side of psychology, with a lot of speculation thrown in. Today will still be speculative, but I want to go back to my sport psych roots… Read More …
Last week, I talked about how being human is a pretty difficult process. As a part of this, I touched on the notion that most so-called “mental illnesses” are actually normal human reactions to difficult situations. I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea lately and Read More …
Reading back through some of my articles, I realise that they could often be interpreted as preachy. My intention for this blog is to write down my ideas, and that, hopefully, some of them will be useful to other people – but it’s important for Read More …
So quick precis of last week: I referred to memes, an evolved method of communicating complex information between human beings, and suggested that they can be an ideal mechanism for hacking human consciousness (by bypassing regular mechanisms and reinforcing themselves through neurobiological reward). I also Read More …
This week is going to be a bit speculative. As you’re probably getting used to, I write about what’s been on my mind lately. Often, I get an idea and jot it down, and then it grows over the next few months until it’s more fully formed Read More …
This week, I’d like to write about something that’s been on my mind for the last month since I quit my job (and pretty much every transition point in my life over the last 15 or so years – and if you’re anything like me, Read More …
This entry, I’d like to talk about why most of us (myself included) take so long to figure out how to be human. In previous posts, I’ve talked a lot about the “inner monkey” (here)– the fact that it’s particularly difficult to be human when Read More …
This week I thought I’d do something a little different. Since I quit my job I’ve had a bit more time on my hands, and I’ve been able to catch up on a little reading. I wanted to share some of the amazing ideas that Read More …
Quick catch up from last time: we all have an inner monkey who has been programmed by evolution to take control when it thinks we’re in danger, or when it thinks that a behaviour (or substance) will increase out likelihood of survival. This was great Read More …
Understanding the limbic system versus the neocortex and why most of us live our lives as smart monkeys rather than human beings Up to now I’ve presented lots of ideas about why this and that, but mostly from a wider societal viewpoint, with lots of Read More …
My favourite quote of the moment is “Refactoring the strategic value proposition in real-time with agile implementation” or “Making it up as you go along” thanks to Charles (one of my favourite authors). Stross is a master of parody, and although the quote is funny (and particularly so Read More …
In my last post I looked at some of the issues associated with being human in the modern world, and why they can limit our ability to function well; in particular limiting our resilience and raising our sense of entitlement. The irony of modern living Read More …
In my last post I talked about some of the reasons why gadgets are so appealing from a neurological perspective. I also suggested that modern living (and the gadgets) are, in part, responsible for a lack of connectedness with the people around us. Interestingly, a part of Read More …
Let me start this post with a caveat: I really like technology and the resultant gadgets. I love the way they enable my life, but I often wonder just how much of this is illusion. I have developed a lot of adaptations to care for my Read More …
In my last post I talked about how the analogy of hardware and software and the files that run on that software can be a good way of understanding why it’s difficult for us to make change easily, or to integrate new ideas into our Read More …
We often like to think of the human brain as analogous to computer hardware, with the mind or consciousness as the software or operating system. It’s by no means a perfect analogy (in reality, the whole system is insanely complex and works a bit more Read More …
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about work and its importance in our lives, from everyday mundanities like being able to pay the bills, to its ability to provide a sense of meaning and purpose in life. The problem is that I’m struggling with the Read More …
This morning I thought that blogging was “graffiti with punctuation”. This afternoon after staring at my screen all day, I’m not convinced that this will be anything more, but I’ll try to leave something of interest here from time to time…