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] Human cognition might have nothing whatsoever to do with computation — 27 Feb 2023
[marginalium] Were ancients the intellectual equals of us — 26 Feb 2023
[marginalium] On the problematic popularisation of ‘trauma’ — 25 Feb 2023
[marginalium] On ‘romantic friendship’ — 24 Feb 2023
[marginalium] What would happen if you microdosed alcohol — 23 Feb 2023
[marginalium] Walking Trees And Parasitic Flowers — 22 Feb 2023
[marginalium] Tree thinking — 21 Feb 2023
[marginalium] The limits of cryptoeconomics — 20 Feb 2023
[marginalium] What if Marx and Freud never existed — 19 Feb 2023
[marginalium] On the value of nurture — 18 Feb 2023
[marginalium] Excerpts from famously prolific reader Tyler Cowan on how to read fast, well, and widely — 17 Feb 2023
[marginalium] An intro to Confucius — 16 Feb 2023
[marginalium] On care in meditation — 15 Feb 2023
[marginalium] How to study effectively — 14 Feb 2023
[article] Malcolm Gladwell Shit — 14 Feb 2023
The most successful facts about the world are the ones that subvert our weakly held beliefs. They look like they’re about improvement, but they’re more often simply entertainment dressed up like education.

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