Jerks. They have an assole aura about them no one quite understands. Is it their childhood? Are they just having a bad day, for like the six-thousandth day in a row? Or maybe it's something exclusively annoying about your face. Say what you will about them, behaviour science's radical right know how to bring out … Continue reading How to become a jerk

We all want to be useful. But we don't want to be used. So being useful becomes a balance between being helpful and being a pain in the ass. At the outset, to be useful sounds like a noble existential goal, but something about it sounds disturbing. Because what exactly does being useful mean? The … Continue reading User manual

Welcome to this step-by-step guide to finding your passion. I have put in a lot of research, so let’s dive right in. Step 1: You are an idiot. Step 2: I can’t believe you still fall for stuff like this. Step 3: Anyway, now that you are here, let me give at least throw in … Continue reading The twenty step guide to finding your passion

A day without learning is like a day without using the crapper. The mental constipation makes you feel dumber than a kakapo climbing a tree. Learning helps life flourish. It cannot be reduced to a garbage eating contest. BuzzFeed already won that. Learning now has become about information. And to rant about information overload on … Continue reading Learning how to learn

Difficult Conversations. Can we not have them? Can we just ignore them and let the consequences implode on our face in maybe say twenty years? Or should we continue to be passive-aggressive until we fall in love with each other? Anyway, here's the real question: who's your favorite Kardashian? We loath difficult conversations. Getting through … Continue reading I don’t know how to say this

Food. Security. Love. Respect. Wisdom.  Sounds like a plan, right? According to psychologist Abe Maslow, that's us grouped by the things we need. He called this the hierarchy of needs. Maslow mummified human desires into a pyramid and concluded our journey starts at the bottom, with food - passes through three stages - and ends … Continue reading Wish list

Writing advice. Every writer's excuse to not write. At some point in the life of a writer s/he is hard-pressed to give out advice on writing. It speaks both of the delusion and desperation that is inherent to the art. First off, I have no intention to establish authority. I have none. If the number … Continue reading How to write

"I am not religious; I am spiritual," is like a cannibal saying he is vegan only because he eats other vegans. There's no better way to ease into religion and spirituality than a disturbingly unfunny joke about the absence of dairy in human flesh. Let's get spirituality out the way. Spirituality is your still-single uncle … Continue reading Rated R

If you came here looking for a list, I have none. But you probably came for something else. You are here to find out what kind of person I am. That's what books are. Persona-shaping loneliness-fighting mystery-soaked nostalgia-induced emotionally-embalmed human connectors. A person's bookshelf is a museum of his soul. It can tell you everything … Continue reading Favorite books