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[article] Leadership consulting is usually more 'feel good' than 'do good' — 17 Aug 2023
Leadership consulting proposes to fix leaders, but because we can confuse ‘making leaders feel good’ with ‘making leaders better’ it usually fails. It doesn’t have to though: just take the extra step from ‘collective vision’ to ‘collective norms’.
[marginalium] The Bronze Age Has Never Looked Stronger — 16 Aug 2023
[marginalium] Land Ownership Makes No Sense — 15 Aug 2023
[marginalium] Ancient Greek Terms Worth Reviving — 14 Aug 2023
[marginalium] Why Do Dogs Turn Their Heads to One Side — 13 Aug 2023
[marginalium] US Air Force conducts post-nuclear training exercise — 12 Aug 2023
[marginalium] The Largest Vocabulary In Hip-Hop (rappers ranked and deconstructed) — 11 Aug 2023
[marginalium] Life After Language — 10 Aug 2023
[marginalium] The Myth Of Florence Nightingale — 9 Aug 2023
[marginalium] How Gender, Generation, Personality, and Politics Shape the Values of American University Students — 6 Aug 2023
[marginalium] Mapping retracted academic papers—locations unsurprising — 3 Aug 2023
[marginalium] How zoom changes conversation — 2 Aug 2023
[article] On managing magic mushroom experiences — 29 Jul 2023
Mushrooms change the balance between inside-out forces (the all-consuming neural networks that support the ‘self’) and outside-in forces (the environment and world around us). This model seems most useful in explaining the mushroom experience.
[article] No action without emotion — 19 Jun 2023
Our nervous system transforms senses to feelings long before they become thoughts and behaviours. One can’t talk about them in isolation. Our aversion to emotions is just an aversion to passionate emotions. But just remember that your body is better at your life that you are.
[marginalium] More useful critiques of Freud than the usual ones — 16 Jun 2023

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):

Neurotypica: Brain science guide for non-scientists

Black Cortex: Leadership consulting

Analects

btrmt. (text-only version)

Resources

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