In most groups the craziest person is in control. It starts because no one wants the problems that come from pissing off a crazy person. It’s just smarter and easier sometimes to let the crazy person...
If you can imagine the future being brighter, it lifts your energy and gooses the chemistry in your body that produces a sensation of happiness. If you can’t even imagine an improved future, you won’t...
I also find it helpful to remind myself that every human is a mess on the inside. It’s easy to assume the good-looking and well-spoken person in front of you has it all together and is therefore your...
This was about the time that my opinion of experts, and authority figures in general, began a steady descent that continues to this day.
The rest of the universe is like the coin. The events ofthe past appear to cause the present, but every time we popback into existence we are subject to a new set of probabilities.Literally anything c...
The job isn't done until you've blamed someone for the parts that went wrong.
Lately...the Peter Principle has given way to the Dilbert Principle. The basic concept of the Dilbert Principle is that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they ca...
If you see something that impresses you, a decent respect to humanity insists you voice your praise.
If you give an ant infinite time, it can move a mountain all by itself.
Everything that motivates living creatures is based onsome weakness or flaw. Hunger motivates animals. Lustmotivates animals. Fear and pain motivate animals. A Godwould have none of those impulses. Hu...
Conversation is more than the sum of the words. It isalso a way of signaling the importance of another person byshowing your willingness to give that person your rarestresource: time. It is a way of c...
Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, tells us that people become unhappy if they have too many options in life. The problem with options is that choosing any path can leave you plagued wit...
Another huge advantage of learning as much as you can in different fields is that the more concepts you understand, the easier it is to learn new ones. Imagine explaining to an extraterrestrial visito...
The past exists only in yourmind, he said. Likewise, the future exists only in yourmind because it has not happened.
Your inability to see other possibilities and your lack of vocabularyare your brain’s limits, not the universe’s.
Women believe that men are, in a sense, defective versions of women, Men believe that women are defective versions of men. Both genders are trapped in adelusion that their personal viewpoints are univ...
What does it mean to be yourself? he asked. If itmeans to do what you think you ought to do, then you’redoing that already. If it means to act like you’re exemptfrom society’s influence, that’s the wo...
Unhappiness that is caused by too much success is a high-class problem. That’s the sort of unhappiness people work all of their lives to get. If you find yourself there, and I hope you do, you’ll find...
The surest way to identify those who won’t succeed at weight loss is that they tend to say things like My goal is to lose ten pounds. Weight targets often work in the short run. But if you need willpo...
The most effective way to stop people from trying to persuade me is to say, ‘I’m not interested.’ You should try it. Don’t offer a reason why you aren’t interested. No one can say why a thing holds in...