In another universe, Karl Starr has already given a TED talk — One of the most disheartening conversations of my life happened at a meetup for science writers at a bar in New York about six years ago. I was venting to a friend, “John,” about not getting a response from a Professor after multiple emails; an interview would have been ideal…

The Great Resignation is a Culture Shift: Loyalty only works in times of stability — I’ve been through multiple “once in a lifetime” economic meltdowns, and lost track of how many times I’ve been advised to stay the course, be consistent, and be loyal. …

The life-changing magic of empathy and zooming out — If you’re one of the few humans who hasn’t heard about the Marshmallow Test, here goes: a researcher at Stanford, Walter Mischel, tested kids’ ability to delay gratification. In his seminal study, he left kids alone in front of a piece of candy. …

The Benefits of Being Inconsistent and Having a Psychologically Rich Life I haven’t posted anything in a while. I mean, a while. I felt guilty at first — I broke my semi-consistent streak, ran the risk of appearing unprofessional, and creates a gap in the newsletter archives. Plus, if the whole point of me writing online is to connect with like-minded…

Workaholism is in our DNA — You’re sick of hustle culture. You’re sick with the American obsession with productivity. You might blame it on a lack of social safety nets, the internet, or rising economic inequality. Bad news, folks: it’s not an artifact of the internet age, the industrial era, or even remotely new. The idea…

Reality is more complicated than numbers — The first book I ever fell in love with was Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield? Swoon. Now there was a protagonist after my heart: a swearing curmudgeon who just did his own thing. But the book has one fundamental flaw: it took J.D. Salinger 10 long years to write. …

Offices are great for managers and awful for everyone else — You may have noticed something about all of the articles and propaganda discussing the “return to the office.” Guess who wants to return? The managers. According to a recent survey, three out of four executives want to return to the office—compared to only 1 in 3 workers. …

And not being able to take that advice can make you feel worse — The well-intentioned Brad Stulberg, a performance coach and author, has recently written some pieces on “Behavioral Activation,” a premise revolving around the idea that motivation and energy follow action. Don’t wait until you feel like doing something, he says — just do it. The old adage “Move a muscle, change…

Stress is cumulative; depression and anxiety follow — I have a new theory that there are now two kinds of people in the world: Those who have been dealing with significant mental health challenges during the pandemic Liars The answer to the ages-old question “genes or the environment?” is always both: the environment pushes us over the edge…