Social Norms – Karla Starr

Why “Just Do It” Doesn’t Work When You’re Depressed

Table of Contents You Can’t Self-Discipline Your Way Out of Depression Depression for Non-depressed Weirdos The Mental Health Pandemic is Inevitable Wear and Tear Take a Toll Climbing Out of

The Life-Changing Magic of Letting Yourself Take Breaks

Table of Contents Why We’re Obsessed With Consistency The Flipside of Consistency: You Can’t Simultaneously Be in the Middle of Something and Have Perspective of It The Psychologically Rich Life

Big-ism: An Epidemic of Bad Communication

While speaking to Congress in February 1981, Ronald Reagan used this example to explain the national debt, $14.3 trillion: “If you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand

The Intelligence of Simplicity

Table of Contents Steve Jobs: Not a Simpleton The Intelligence of Simplicity Why We Like Other People: The Art of Reinforcement Presenting complex, detailed numbers prevents your audience from seeing

Slow Productivity is Already Here

To prevent burnout, we need to care less and have a life Table of Contents Cal Newport, Super Genius There Will Always Be Assholes Who Work Over the Weekend When

The Relativity Theory of Everything

In 2020, I was living in an apartment that was two blocks away from a hospital. In Queens. New York. You know, where the pandemic basically started. COVID-related mayhem started

The Slow Suffocation of Unsolicited Advice

Table of Contents The Power of a Lack of Mental Chatter This is Your Brain on Status The Other Marshmallow Study The Slow Suffocation of Unsolicited Advice Why Unsolicited Advice

Why today’s self-help advice is making us miserable

Table of Contents The Bible or Nothing Character Building: Ben Franklin and Beyond How to Sell Yourself The Industrial Revolution: The Death of Modesty Tim Ferriss and the Age of

40 Years of Stanford Research Found That Being Able to Delay Gratification Depends on Your Past Experiences

Table of Contents Selection Bias The Marshmallow Test The Other Marshmallow Test When an Entire Generation Doesn’t Get the Marshmallow Selection Bias Have you ever felt cold in an office?

Everyone With a Superpower Has a Part-Time Job

Years ago when I started getting serious about my health, a group of top-level CrossFit athletes decided to join my gym. One night, my Crossfit coach decided to take a

Draw the rest of the fucking owl: On the unintended consequences of self-improvement’s privilege problem

Table of Contents We would all read Brad Pitt’s dating book “Don’t complicate things” say rich white men whose assistants are probably writing the books Why the simplicity of privilege

Why “There” is No Better Than “Here”: How Your Attention Creates Your Happiness

Table of Contents Everything in life is a good news/bad news story How you pay attention to anything is how you view everything Optimism is a superpower Attitudes are contagious

The Relativity Theory of Motivation

This interview with Devon Price is the best that I’ve read in a while. Price, the author of Laziness Does Not Exist, started rethinking their entire view of productivity after

Huberman: Bro Science with a Ph.D.

Table of Contents My Insomnia Huberman Podcast: Bro Science with a Ph.D. How Bro Science Usually Starts The Funny Thing About His Recommendations We should all be freezing What my

Why it’s so hard to change our beliefs

Table of Contents Where Our Hunches Actually Come From The Mere Exposure Effect Fluency Change is Harder Than We Realize Confirmation Bias and Commitment “Laziness is built deep into our

ChatGPT Case Study: How I Saved $125k on My House

You are a real estate agent and a master of human behavior. I am looking to buy a house from a couple in their 90s, Paul and Caroline White, who

The Mental Load at Work: What I Learned Working with Chip Heath for 3 Years

A lack of mental chatter Working with Chip Heath was the most eye-opening work experience of my life. Period. Why? You don’t get to see what life is like behind

Dopamine is Not Destiny

It’s hard not to talk about complexity or systems without sounding like you just came back from Burning Man: “Everything is connected!! IT’S ALL ABOUT ENERGY!!!” And yet… IT’S ALL

References

My book contains an obscene amount of references. What can I say? I love learning. Because of the replication crisis in psychology, I didn’t want to write about a study

I’m Building a Digital Garden

I have ADD. Bad. One coping mechanism that’s served me well, professionally, is to research and start using new tools. Thanks to 20 years of “maybe there’s a better way

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