sum of my thoughts

The Conscientiousness Bias

Life is unfair - but not in the way you think it is. What would that be? Probably the infuriating fact that some people are born more beautiful, rich or intelligent. Needless to say, this is certainly unfair. But there’s an even worse way the eternal imbalance of opportunity manifests itself.

on video games

Refined Meaning

Humans are notorious for one thing: They use technology to turn the fun in nature’s pleasures up to eleven. Porn, drugs and junk food are but a few examples. But one such instance poses a mystery: Video games. While their addictiveness is self-evident, the evolutionary reason for it is less obvious.

on eating

Hungry, Like An Ox

People break diets. But who could blame them, really? After all, diets do the same to them.

on free will

Free Will ≠ Free Want

In the 20th century - after millennia of nervous denial - the human species has been exposed. The evidence is in: Determinism is real, making us nothing but the mouthpiece for a very well engineered machine. How can we be so sure? Spoiler alert: We can't.

on attractiveness

Arousal Cues

Pornography or romance novel, the profit-driven quest to maximally engage the consumers' sexual imagination offers us the most honest portrayal of the things both sexes desire in each other. And as we’re going to see, they differ in quite interesting ways - beginning with the medium itself.

on drugs

Willpowder

The emergence of a meaningful experience can be summoned up by taking a pill, equipping you with the divine power of directing your passion towards any goal you deem desirable - but potentially leaving you with more questions than you started off with.

on politics

Thoughts on Oughts

With its catalog of sensible questions, politics prompts people to argue — often with a kind of zealotry that makes it appear as if their life was at stake. But why is that?

on personality

Personalities Aren't Diseases

Since some biologically given differences between individual brain-architecture can explain general behavioral tendencies - defining personality -, some of the nowadays less favorable aspects of our neurological and endocrine makeup are quickly attributed as features of a disordered mind.

on depression

Symptoms Aren't Diseases

With so many different physiological causes for depression, we need to rethink its meaning: Away from the concept of a disorder and towards that of a symptom.

Subscribe to sum of my thoughts