AI slop is winning.

More than 800 U.S. TikTok users shared their data with The Washington Post. We used it to find out why some people become power users, spending hours per day scrolling.

DM Did we hijack "America?" It seems we, the media, societies, and now A.I. have forgotten what was/is simply basic elementary school geography. That is, "America" consists of three areas: north, central and south. Each of these are comprised of multiple countries. However, the United States has changed (usurped, stolen?) its name to being America, and seems to have forgotten all the rest of the "Amercian Countries." Your thoughts and perspectives on this matter? Is this sim

For many of us, navigating the end of a relationship is one of the hardest things we will ever do. This week, we conclude our Love 2.0 series with psychologist Antonio Pascual-Leone, who shares the most common mistakes we make when it comes to splitting up, and techniques that can help us ease the pain. Then, our latest edition of Your Questions Answered. Cognitive scientist Phil Fernbach returns to respond to listeners’ thoughts and questions about the “illusion of knowledge

DM Are you familiar with "terror management theory," and if so, please provide your understandings and perspectives. I am indeed familiar with terror management theory, and I'd be happy to walk you through this fascinating psychological framework. Terror management theory, often abbreviated as TMT, emerged in the 1980s from the work of social psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski. The theory attempts to answer a profound question: how do human bei

In a new book, Wharton's Jerry Wind and his co-authors argue that creativity is a learnable skill that becomes more powerful when paired with intelligent machines.

When making any tough decision, the key is not to be overly exploratory or exploitative.

The author spent days in a room with no light. Who would he be when he emerged?

Expert advice on how to build your strategic muscles

DM Upon a walk in a forest today, I was considering the diversity of tree leaf shapes, and how each species of tree seems to maintain these shapes. I realize there are many reasons beyond my imagination for this persistent variation. However, I surmise there may be (at least) two primary factors: optimal functional efficiency and optimal environmental durability. So considering the southeastern U.S. forest in which I was walking (which appeared to be relatively mature), and u

How does the paideía of the Chinese tech elite differ from their counterparts in Silicon Valley?

DM As many wise people have shared, across a variety of contexts, human social attentiveness and caring (aka: compassion) diminishes as a function of "distance" (broadly defined in numerous ways, not only physical). In other words, self-care and immediate family care typically reside at our "care epicenter," ...while our "extended concern, attention and care" for all others suffers varying degrees of decline, thus encompasses incremental reduction of moral social thought, ac

Technology is coming for jobs. Here is why we need to plan, not panic. KEY POINTS Technology has always affected work but the next wave of technology may be different. Work fulfills not only essential physical needs for us but also psychological needs. Even if a work-free world offers physical abundance, we may still experience psychological poverty.

Small No Kings event puts love ahead of politics in rural Kansas town where immigrants are detained . Thank you Kay! ... "One step at a time!"

What to do about the deadly misfits among us? First, recognize the problem.

An instructive new biography of Peter Matthiessen chronicles his many paradoxical attempts to escape who the world expected him to be.

Our personalities are strongly formed by memories. Among the most significant may be those whose details have faded.

DM Good morning. It seems the most important skill required to gain the full benefit (... even threshold value) from A.I. LLMs is "rigorous inquiry," ...which is typically propelled by wide-spectrum, insatiable curiosity. Conversely and paradoxically, this seems the least available (and respected?) skill within the general population; and perhaps even amongst most professionals. Furthermore, future trends seem unfavorable: ... as fast, easy, superficial brain food is increasi

Everyone sooner or later faces a dark night of the soul. Don’t hide from yours; learn from it.

DM Good morning Claude. How might theTeilhard de Chardin's construct of a "Noosphere" relate, correlate, or have relevance to our recent conversations, and the many factors thereof (such as: Pantakinesis™, the Universal Holophren™ and the fractals thereof, Non-local consciousness discoveries and their potential relationships to post-death consciousness, Fitness=Truth™ and definition of truths as being personal, etc.). Good morning! What a rich synthesis question! Having revie