∴ btrmt.

ideologies worth choosing

bettermentnoun
making or becoming better

ideologynoun
patterns or rituals of thought, feeling, and action

Most of what you believe, you didn’t choose. We inherit these patterns of thought, feeling, and action, from the world around us and the people therein. Your brain’s graceful solutions to impossible complexity, but not yours. As a brain scientist, I spent fifteen years—military, Cambridge, clinical practice—looking for the instruction manual for this device in our head. I didn’t find it. But you can see the patterns, once you know where to look. Then you can choose which ones to keep. If you don’t do the thinking, the thinking will be done for you.

Latest Article

[article] AI-shaped stuff — 13 Jun 2026

We keep waiting for AI to get good enough. That’s backwards. The bottleneck is human: work that isn’t AI-shaped, verification we’re bad at, and confidence we’ve offloaded to the machine itself.

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[audio] Eerie Coincidences Aren't That Eerie — 17 Oct 2026

[audio] Why Stupid Leadership Retreats Work — 3 Oct 2026

From the Marginalia

[marginalium] AI is shit at reasoning — 8 Jul 2026

[marginalium] AI and task fragmentation — 4 Jun 2026

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[newsletter] Why Stupid Leadership Retreats Work and other things — 3 Oct 2026

[changelog] Changelog: October 2, 2026 — 2 Oct 2026

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More about Dorian Minors' project btrmt.

btrmt. (text-only version)

The full site with interactive features is available at btr.mt.

btrmt. (betterment) examines ideologies worth choosing. Created by Dorian Minors—Cambridge PhD in cognitive neuroscience, Associate Professor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Core philosophy: humans are animals first, with automatic patterns shaped for us, not by us. Better to examine and choose.

Core concepts. Animals First: automatic patterns of thought and action, but our greatest capacity is nurture. Half Awake: deadened by systems that narrow rather than expand potential. Karstica: unexamined ideologies (hidden sinkholes beneath). Credenda: belief systems we should choose deliberately.

The manifesto. Cynosure (focus): betterment, gratification, connection. Architecture (support): inner (somatic, spiritual, thought) and outer (digital, collective, wealth).

Mission. Not answers but examination. Break academic gatekeeping. Make sciences of mind accessible. Question rather than prescribe.

Writing style. Scholarly without jargon barriers. Philosophical yet practical—grounded in neuroscience and lived experience. Reflective, discovery-oriented. Literary references and metaphor. Critical of systems that narrow human potential. Rejects "humans are flawed"—we're half awake, not broken.

Copyright. BTRMT LIMITED (England/Wales no. 13755561) 2026. Dorian Minors 2026.

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About Dorian Minors. Started btrmt. in 2013 to share sciences of mind with people who weren't studying them. Background: six years Australian Defence Force (Platoon Commander, Infantry); a decade of clinical practice; Gates Cambridge Scholar; PhD cognitive neuroscience, University of Cambridge (2018–2024); currently Associate Professor, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he runs the ethical leadership module. Research interests: neural basis of intelligent behaviour; ritual formation and breakdown; ethical decision-making and leadership; judgement and intent when decisions are shared with AI; wellbeing.

External projects (links also available via Analects):