Richard Layard’s Happiness (2005) was about the ‘new’ science of happiness. Depressingly, it feels current and we all need reminding of three things:  Want to know more? This blog post is part of a series I am making called Reading For The Aspirational Self. Don’t think of this as book summaries – I’m not doing that. Instead, I’m drawing out … Read more

How much do you really know? The Knowledge Illusion by Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman suggests that you know a lot less than you think you do. It’s most valuable interventions are within and surrounding cognitive science; but there are lessons of value for you all, too. Particularly if you were educated recently and think humans use reason rationally and progress individually or … Read more

Nassem Taleb’s Skin in the Game argues, among other things, that much of our knowledge about people comes from small scale studies and is then generalized to “Americans”, or even “humans”. Taleb exposes some of the flaws behind this method of reasoning. He argues that instead of listening to social scientists, we’d be better listening … Read more

You all know, I’m sure, that 95% of statistics are made up on the spot. But can we trust those that are published in scientific journals and circulated elsewhere? Should we change our behavior when a particular study seems to recommend it? Probably not, argues Jordan Ellenberg. How Not to be Wrong is a book … Read more

Empathy is a skill: something you can improve with the right practices. This is one of the fundamental arguments of Jamil Zaki’s War for Kindness. Those who partake in regular meditation see measurable growth in their empathy, emotional intelligence and attention span. Just reading this argument might even shift you to being slightly more empathetic. … Read more