Personal Development
6 pieces · 2.5 hours of reading
Why Most Self-Improvement Fails, and What the Behaviour-Change Science Says Instead
Wanting to change is the easy part. Here is what fifty years of research says happens next, and why the gap between intending and doing is where most plans die.
Deep dive26 min02Self-Discipline Without Self-Hate: Willpower, Ego Depletion and Self-Compassion
For twenty years, psychology taught that willpower is a fuel tank that runs dry. Then the tank failed to replicate. What replaced it is better news, especially for people who are hard on themselves.
Deep dive23 min03A Life That Means Something: Values, Purpose, and the Science of Meaning
Philosophy asks whether life can mean anything. Psychology asks what makes people feel that theirs does. The answers turn out to be more ordinary, and more within reach, than the 2 a.m. version of the question suggests.
Deep dive24 min04Resilience: What Decades of Research Actually Show
Most people who go through terrible things bend and come back. Here's where that finding came from, which parts are still disputed, and why resilience should never mean putting up with anything at any cost.
Deep dive27 min05Character: What Strengths, Virtues and Grit Research Gets Right and Wrong
Psychologists spent two decades trying to put good character on a scientific footing. Some of it held up, some of it shrank, and the toughest challenge came from experiments suggesting character barely exists at all.
Deep dive23 min06The Long Game: Designing a Life Across Decades
What the longest studies of adult life, the happiness curve, careers research, compounding and regret research say about planning a life you won't fully see until you're old.
Deep dive24 min