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Neurotypica — On how the brain actually works

• [audio] Overengineering calming down — 4 Apr 2026
  Pop neuroscience is just “calm down” in a lab coat. The theories are scaffolding around trivial advice, attractive because they make your problems someone else’s fault, and the scaffolding hides what actually matters.
• [audio] The Amygdala is Not the Fear Centre — 7 Mar 2026
  Your amygdala doesn’t decide your fear. You do. It’s not a fear centre, it’s an intensity detector, and calming it down is solving the wrong problem. Watch how you respond instead.
• [audio] Stupid Questions: Consciousness — 10 Jan 2026
  The hard problem of consciousness isn’t a problem. It’s a beautiful argument with no stakes. Behaviour is what matters, not the ghost behind the curtain.
• [article] Stupid Questions — 1 Jan 2026
  Nature is just nurture over time, and nurture is far more obviously in charge; nothing changes if free will <em>isn’t</em> real; and the same is true of consciousness. They’re just complicated debates with no real outcomes.
• [audio] Stupid Questions: Free Will — 27 Dec 2025
  Whether free will is real changes precisely nothing. The world’s too complex for the answer to bite, and behaviour bends the same way no matter which side wins.
• [audio] Stupid Questions: Nature/Nurture — 13 Dec 2025
  Nature is just nurture given time, and nurture is obviously the one in charge. The whole debate is Gladwell bait: superficially sexy, practically useless.
• [audio] Stress is Good — 1 Nov 2025
  Stress isn’t broken by modern life. It’s a performance tool, and the line between fuel and harm isn’t the stressor. It’s whether you control it.
• [marginalium] The economy of small pleasures — 8 Jul 2025
• [marginalium] The line between sleep and wake — 6 Jul 2025
• [marginalium] Are intelligentsia less happy — 26 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] The Personal and Private Nature of Smartphones — 25 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Nature is Nurture — 18 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Why Individuals Avoid Information — 17 Jun 2025
• [article] Beyond System 1 and System 2 — 13 Jun 2025
  System 1 vs System 2 is a useful shorthand, but our minds aren’t two-speed engines—they’re multi-process coalitions of specialised agents working in parallel and in series.
• [marginalium] Christopher Alexander and his patterns — 10 Jun 2025