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Accidental Talent — On the accident of talent

• [article] On Motivation — 15 Sep 2025
  We can think of motivations in terms of three things. There is the <em>content</em>: what things motivate us. Then there is the <em>process</em>: how things motivate us. And lastly, we have those things that <em>maintain</em> our motivation.
• [article] Anticipation beats reward — 31 Jan 2025
  Basically, reward and ancipation both use the same system, but differently. Anticipation seems to come in through the senses and get sent throughout the brain, but pleasure seems to come in from more evaluatey bits—maybe to help us learn what’s rewarding.
• [article] Addictive Work — 24 Jan 2025
  The neural reward circuit implies that small, rewarding tasks that share environmental context are going to be the most addictive, so break tasks into small steps that end in a clear good feeling and optimise for a shared environment.
• [article] Motivation pt. II: Stickytaping it all together — 6 Dec 2024
  We can think of motivations in terms of three things. There is the <em>content</em>: what things motivate us. Then there is the <em>process</em>: how things motivate us. And lastly, we have those things that <em>maintain</em> our motivation.
• [article] Motivation pt. I: Haphazard Dichotomies — 29 Nov 2024
  Individually, the disconnected dichotomies of intrinsic vs extrinsic, normative vs motivating, ‘cognitive’ and ‘biological’, and the like have little utility. But when you put them together, you can get some quite juicy fidelity on why people do what they do.
• [article] Mechanical success vs nepotism and luck — 1 Nov 2024
  We usually complain about systems ‘getting in our way’, with arbitrary criteria that determine success. But this goes the other way too. Much of my success and that of those around me is similarly mechanical. Not luck, effort, or nepotism.
• [marginalium] Why some accidents are unavoidable — 15 Jun 2023
• [marginalium] The diverse economies of neolithic peoples — 14 Jun 2023
• [marginalium] The failure of market knows best economics — 13 Jun 2023
• [marginalium] Truth decay and national security — 11 Jun 2023
• [marginalium] How to beat roulette — 10 Jun 2023
• [marginalium] The Moral Economy Of High-Tech Modernism — 16 May 2023
• [marginalium] What happens, then, when large and powerful states, along with the transnational institutions and corporations they promote and protect, are all driving towards the same goal — 15 May 2023
• [article] Solving the say-do-gap — 12 May 2023
  To close the say-do-gap, we need to feel some ownership of the problem, we need the social support to support the change, and we need to know how. Anything less will make us focus on how good thinking about changing feels and not actually putting in the work.
• [marginalium] On the opportunity cost of castles — 6 May 2023