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The Scarlet T
You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be. — Marianne Williamson Today’s topic took a bit of courage for me to write about. It’s hard to put any version of yourself on the Internet that isn’t perfect, our strong social motivations always wanting to portray ourselves from the most flattering angles. So, to publicly inform others of something “negative” about oneself can be rather scary. But I...
Improve Yourself with One Word
Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world. — Amit Ray I have a question for you: When that voice inside your head tries to get you motivated, does it say things like, “I can do this?” or “You can do this?” Although this may seem like a trivial difference, the research on this distinction is rather impressive. When we talk about ourselves, we tend to use first-person pronouns (e.g., “I” or “me”). On the other...
Are Safe Spaces Helpful?
People demand freedom of speech as compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. — Soren Kierkegaard At the commencement address for University of Notre Dame’s 2017 graduating class, Vice President Pence had the following to say: Far too many campuses across America have become characterized by speech codes, safe zones, tone policing, administration-sanctioned political correctness—all of which amounts to...
Are You An Imposter?
It is because we are all imposters that we endure each other. — Emile M. Cioran It’s no fun feeling like a phony. In fact, for my first semester in graduate school, I was certain a mistake had been made. Everyone was extremely smarter than me; it took forever to get through my homework; reading scientific articles was like deciphering a cookbook (I’m not good at cooking). But after four years in the program—after getting my...
Robot Psychology
We’re fascinated with robots because they are reflections of ourselves. — Ken Goldberg If you watch The Terminator, robots aren’t really that great to humans—unless being besties in the future entails enslavement and eradication. Indeed, most movies with “sentient” robots paint them somewhat malevolently (e.g., The Matrix; I, Robot; all of the other Terminator movies). In our own reality, though, even Bill Gates, Elon...