Think smarter about what’s “good”

December 20, 2023

Cross-posted on the Clearer Thinking blog. Travis Manuel helped to edit and improve this post. People like to think of things as "good" or "bad," such as: Trans fats are bad for you, and broccoli is good for you. Lethargy is bad, but exercise is good. Being cowardly is bad, and having courage is good. A problem with putting something in the "good" bucket of your mind, though, is that this can lead to the belief that the more of it there is, the better. But most go...

Five metaphorical tools to help you climb your personal mountains

May 19, 2023

You're on a mountain range, trying to reach the highest mountain peak you're capable of reaching. That peak reflects the total sum of your achievements according to your intrinsic values. This may include, for instance, your happiness, the happiness of your loved ones, your positive impact on the world, living virtuously, achieving your deeply meaningful goals, and so on. Unfortunately, the mountains you face are foggy as hell. Plus, they have dense forests, huge boulders, and bra...

Reflecting on your life principles

December 31, 2022

When was the last time you reflected on your life principles? If you haven't reflected on them recently, why not schedule a time to do so? Principles act as shortcuts to help you make choices that you'll be satisfied with, and they serve as beacons to guide you toward a better version of yourself. They also serve as an encapsulation of important lessons you've learned throughout your life. We recently released an interactive module to help you determine your principles. It also makes it e...

How do we predict high levels of success?

September 12, 2021

Below, I outline 13 approaches to predicting high levels of success with differing levels of complexity, including my own mega model at the bottom. Note: here, I use the term "success" merely in terms of achievement, career success, or high levels of expertise, NOT in terms of happiness, living a good life, morality, having strong social bonds, etc. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to be successful in the way this post focuses on. But if you DO want "success" in the sense in...

On “superstimuli” and their dangers

July 1, 2020

Images generated by DALL•E. (This is my attempt to get the DALL•E 2 A.I. to make the cutest thing imaginable. Left: a combined puppy/kitten. Right: a combined tiger cub/wolf pup.)

A “superstimulus” triggers a response that evolution gave us, but to a stronger degree than is likely to occur in nature. They exist because we humans purposely optimize our environments to create these responses. We are surrounded by more superstimuli than most of us realize. Examples of superstimuli: • food: Cheetos / skittles / McDonalds • goal achievement: video games • visual arousal: porn • pair bonding: romance novels • affection: dogs ...

Predictors of Extreme Success

April 16, 2018

What traits, behaviors, or characteristics of a person are the best predictors of whether they achieve extremely high levels of success in their life? For instance, those who have: created billion-dollar companies with huge influence (e.g., Elon Musk)made multiple revolutionary scientific advances (e.g., Einstein)achieved absurdly high levels of skill at sports (e.g., Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who set the long-standing world record in the seven-event Olympic sport "Heptathlon")reached extraordin...

What People Want Most

January 14, 2018

What do people want more than anything else in the world? I explored this question by running two little studies across two different populations: mechanical turk (“mturk,” n=49, all U.S.) vs. my Facebook friends (“FB,” n=111, who tend to be in the U.S.) with different approaches, me hand categorizing written responses vs. participants selecting the category that best matches what they wrote using 24 categories in random order developed from the first study, including an “other” option. A...

Goals are Valuable and Dangerous

June 30, 2017

One of the most dangerous and useful things about goal setting is that it feels good to achieve challenging goals even if they are meaningless, only five minutes old, or created by someone else. Imagine throwing away a crumpled piece of paper in a waste bin. Now imagine doing it again, but assume this time that you set the goal of throwing it in from 6 feet away. As your tossed paper ball sails through the air, you may feel an edge of nervousness. When it falls into the bin, you may feel a s...

Deconstructing Accomplishment

September 17, 2011

Accomplishments are usually only achieved when a number of factors all come together. Take, for example, a tennis player. It is unlikely that he will accomplish a lot if he doesn't have ambitious goals. If he only plays for fun, or to be the best player in his tennis club, it is very unlikely he'll put in sufficient effort to win a major tournament. So ambition will be an important ingredient in determining his level of success. What's more, to attain great things in tennis, the player need to s...

Planning Your Life Based on Your Ideal Ordinary Week

August 4, 2011

When people consider how they want their lives to be, they often think in terms of reaching specific milestones. They set goals like earning a certain amount of money, achieving a certain level of success at work, having a certain group of close friends, falling in love, getting married, having a spectacular wedding, having children, and being thought of as a good person. But milestones like these don't necessarily determine how much people enjoy their lives, how high their mood is on a regular ...