analectnoun
a fragment or passage selected from a literary work;

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

[marginalium] Against the Placebo Effect — 20 Nov 2024
[marginalium] A paean to the Brothers Grimm — 15 Nov 2024
[marginalium] Podcast interview with Gwern (AI development) — 15 Nov 2024
[marginalium] Carl Jung's Midlife-Crisis Notebooks — 15 Nov 2024
[marginalium] Social media is the new oral history — 15 Nov 2024
[article] Bias is good — 15 Nov 2024
Bias reduces noise—if you know <em>roughly</em> what to expect, then being biased by those expectations means you won’t get distracted by less relevant data points.
[marginalium] What makes sentences work — 15 Nov 2024
[marginalium] The Problem of Thinking Too Much. — 15 Nov 2024
[marginalium] Australia banning social media for under-16s — 8 Nov 2024
[article] Brain structures and behaviour — 8 Nov 2024
The brain is an <em>integrator</em>. It takes in information from all over the body, and puts it together to decide how you should act. This messy integration acts as a bottleneck, forcing the brain to streamline as much as possible. Rarely does it try to ‘think’.
[marginalium] On the popularity of magic mushrooms — 8 Nov 2024
[marginalium] The cracks in Open Access Research — 8 Nov 2024
[marginalium] The fluoride people were right — 6 Nov 2024
[marginalium] How to survive the age of anger — 6 Nov 2024
[marginalium] The Lost Art of Memory — 6 Nov 2024

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.

Optional

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); Gates Cambridge Scholar; PhD cognitive neuroscience, University of Cambridge (2018-2024); currently Associate Professor, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Research interests: neural basis of intelligent behaviour, decision intelligence, ritual formation/breakdown, ethical leadership, wellbeing.

External projects (links also available via Analects):

Lectures: Podcasts exploring ideologies

Neurotypica: Brain science guide for non-scientists

Black Cortex: Leadership consulting

Analects

btrmt. (text-only version)

Resources

Optional