And why I love diners where the food is just OK. — “Trying to avoid cognitive biases is not only impossible, it’s a waste of life,” I say to my friend, slapping the cracked formica countertop of our booth, fueled by the cheap coffee always filled to the brim by the elderly waitress. I forced him to drive to this mediocre diner…

The relegation of the placebo effect to mere snake oil. — A British doctor, John Haygarth, was the first person to ever formally notice the placebo effect. A popular tool at the time was called the “Perkins Tractor” — little wands you waved around a painful joint. They worked! Or, well, it depends on what you mean by “worked.” Haygarth noticed…

How to be brilliant and alone. — The “midwit” feedback loop makes a lot of sense: Common sense and intuition are replaced with a more “objective” explanation (which often happens to nicely excuse our character defects). Despite their emotional cost, we buy and consume those explanations in exchange for a little boost in status (actually, did you…

My middle-school visit to the LIGO facility to learn about gravitational waves from across the universe. — Southern bumpkin middle schoolers are on a field trip to see one of the most advanced scientific endeavors in human history. It’s called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory). These sensors are trying to detect gravitational waves from the other side of the universe. By the time they get to us…

Perceiving every place as a temple is a life-changing skill. — My most beautiful memories take place around a worn-out formica countertop holding up a greasy steel box of light-bulb-warmed fried chicken, flickering fluorescent lighting over cans of beer on ice, or a nighttime drive past the distant industrial flames of “Cancer Alley” while listening to the wistful indie music I…

Eric Weinstein calls for a return to dreaming to make the next big breakthrough in physics. — I drove up the beautiful winding coast from LA to San Francisco to attend a conference with some Silicon Valley bigwigs. I, of course, am not a Silicon Valley bigwig. But my friend invited me along, and so we drove up together. This is not an uncommon view along that…

The short-sightedness of wanting more. — My brother and I played The Sims on a computer running Windows 95.

Spiritual self-help is a parasite adapted to our religious instincts. — I spent thousands to go to a Joe Dispenza meditation retreat. Part of me thought of it as a fun experiment — a lark. But I also probably believed (hoped) there was a chance that I could unlock something… more. Go here to get these posts in your inbox on…

What does “real” even mean online? — It took me 5 minutes to prompt on ChatGPT to make the post. This was this prompt: “Make a post for AITA that is likely to go viral on Reddit.” In less than 12 hours, it got half a million views, thousands of upvotes, and hundreds of passionate comments: