Analects

Filter by type: All · Articles · Audio · Marginalia

Filter by anthology: All · Betterment · Gratification · Connection · Somatic Architecture · Spiritual Architecture · Thought Architecture · Wealth Architecture · Digital Architecture · Collective Architecture

No Action Without Emotion — On emotion as operating system

• [audio] The Amygdala is Not the Fear Centre — 7 Mar 2026
  The amygdala doesn’t determine your fear response. You do. It’s not a fear centre—it’s an intensity detector. Stop trying to calm the amygdala. Start paying attention to how you respond.
• [audio] Stress is Good — 1 Nov 2025
  Stress isn’t poorly calibrated to modern life. It’s the energising force that allows us to perform. Optimal performance requires optimal stress. The difference between eustress and distress isn’t biological—it’s psychological. Controllability matters more than the stressor itself.
• [marginalium] The economy of small pleasures — 8 Jul 2025
• [marginalium] Nostalgia as a parasite — 24 Apr 2025
• [marginalium] Distraction is mind obesity — 24 Apr 2025
• [article] Stress and Creativity — 28 Mar 2025
  Stress promotes bias—stereotypical thinking and behaving. Less stress promotes cognitive flexibility—an openness to new ways of thinking and behaving. Neither is better than the other. It’s about the situation you deploy them in.
• [marginalium] Modern determinism; free will dies again — 23 Jan 2025
• [marginalium] Rationalists discover 'vibes' — 23 Jan 2025
• [marginalium] Fitbit heart-rate when wife asked for a divorce — 27 Dec 2024
• [marginalium] Why Do So Many People Want to Die? — 27 Nov 2024
• [article] Giving in to Fight or Flight — 22 Nov 2024
  Stress is a good thing before it’s a bad thing. It motivates us to act. We are scared of the f’s, but we don’t need to be. We should fight for things worth fighting for and fly from things that aren’t. Use the f’s as guides to action, not just things to avoid.
• [marginalium] How to survive the age of anger — 6 Nov 2024
• [marginalium] The cases against free will — 30 Aug 2024
• [article] Why do people kill themselves? — 16 Aug 2024
  Suicide is the interaction between personal despair and the failure of communities to provide reasons to live. We can’t answer Camus’ “one truly serious philosophical problem” for people, only they can. But we can provide an argument to live, by showing people where they fit.
• [marginalium] On the 'empathy economy' as jobs are automated — 8 Aug 2024