Subject
17 entries
Psychology
Bookmarks
Stefan Mihaljevic: depth psychology and shadow work
Stefan Mihaljevic offers depth psychotherapy for high-achieving men who've hit external success but feel something essential is missing. His work centers on shadow integration and dreamwork — the stuff that optimization culture tends to skip.
The anxiety-procrastination cycle
Solvingprocrastination.com's analysis of the anxiety-procrastination cycle — anxiety causes procrastination, procrastination increases anxiety, and the cycle reinforces itself. Covers intervention strategies and the important caveat that anxiety isn't always the cause.
Cognitive Distortions That Undermine Clear Thinking
A guide to cognitive distortions that undermine clear thinking in leadership — the CBT/REBT catalog applied to high-performers under stress. Naming these patterns is the first step to catching yourself mid-distortion.
The Best General Advice on Earth: William James on Habit
James Somers on William James's core advice about habit formation — that the key to changing your life is acting immediately on any resolution, not waiting for the right moment. A short but pointed piece that cuts through the modern productivity genre.
No Small Plans: Evidence-Based Executive Coaching
No Small Plans is a values-based executive coaching practice using Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) for founders and tech leaders. Targets post-exit founders, scaling executives, and leaders seeking deeper alignment between work and values.
The Mountain Is You
Brianna Wiest's 2020 book on the psychology of self-sabotage — arguing that the obstacles we unconsciously create mirror inner conflicts that demand confrontation rather than circumvention. Readable and practically grounded, if you're willing to take the premise seriously.
Secret Ingredient for Success
NYT Sunday Review piece on the role of self-awareness in success — arguing that high achievers distinguish themselves not by talent but by how they process failure and feedback. The 'secret ingredient' is the ability to learn from experience rather than defend against it.
Raw Nerve
Aaron Swartz's Raw Nerve is a collection of essays about psychology, self-improvement, and confronting uncomfortable truths about how we think. Written in late 2012, these are among his most personal and intellectually honest posts.
Progress of Happiness — Can Duruk
Can Duruk's essay on the relationship between progress and happiness — arguing that the feeling of moving forward matters more than arrival at any particular destination. A short meditation on motivation and satisfaction.
A Founder's Constant State of Rejection
A FounderDating post on the psychological reality of founding a startup: you are constantly being told no, and building resilience to that is a core founder skill. Honest about the emotional cost that startup advice usually papers over.
What Happens to Our Brains When We Exercise
Buffer's synthesis of neuroscience research on exercise and mood: BDNF and endorphins explain why exercise produces mental clarity and euphoria, and timing matters more than volume — 20 minutes on the day you need it beats a missed workout in a weekly routine.
The Science of What Motivates Us to Get Up for Work Every Day
Buffer's survey of the research behind what motivates people at work — covering intrinsic motivation, autonomy, mastery, purpose, and the surprising failure of money as a primary driver. Useful framing for understanding why good jobs feel good and bad ones feel hollow.
The Perfect Compliment
Esquire's guide to giving compliments that land — the core insight being that effective compliments are specific, timely, and non-transactional. Generic praise ('you're great') reads as automatic; observed-detail praise ('I noticed how you handled that') reads as genuine.
How Depressed People Use the Internet
NYT Sunday Review on research showing that depressed people use the internet differently — more aimless browsing, peer-to-peer file sharing, and email, less purposeful navigation. The pattern may both reflect and reinforce depressive states.
Why We Don't Believe in Science
Jonah Lehrer's New Yorker piece on the psychology of science denial — why people reject empirical findings that conflict with existing beliefs. The mechanism is motivated reasoning, not stupidity: the brain evaluates evidence through the filter of prior commitments.
Revisiting Why Incompetents Think They're Awesome
Ars Technica revisiting the Dunning-Kruger effect — the finding that people with limited knowledge in a domain overestimate their competence while experts underestimate theirs. The 2012 piece examined criticism and refinements of the original 1999 study.
Small By Design: Path, Familyleaf, and Pair
NYT's coverage of small-by-design social networks like Path, Familyleaf, and Pair in 2012 — products deliberately capping user counts to reflect cognitive limits on meaningful relationships. A reaction to Facebook's ambient mass-friend model.