Human Behaviour
The 90-year-old who became the oldest person in space — and what he said when he came back
Imagine being ninety years old, strapping into a rocket, and shooting yourself out of the atmosphere.
Human Behaviour
One mark of a genuinely intelligent mind may not be quick answers, a good memory, or being the most articulate person in the room
The smartest person I knew in school was not the one who gave the fastest answers.
Human Behaviour
Few people talk about why the boomer generation seems so unfazed by things that flatten the rest of us
I have a close friend whose mother is in her late seventies. She grew up in rural Victoria in the 1950s, one of five kids, father who worked the land, no central heating, no money to speak of.
Human Behaviour
AI is so power-hungry that Meta is now buying electricity from space
Mark Zuckerberg's company just made one of the most unusual energy deals in tech history.
Space Industry
25 years ago today, one man paid $20 million to become the first space tourist
On April 28, 2001, a sixty-year-old American businessman climbed into a Russian Soyuz capsule on a launchpad in Kazakhstan and rode it into orbit . He wasn't a trained astronaut.
Psychology
People with genuinely strong self-worth don’t constantly affirm themselves — they operate through quiet patterns that most people mistake for aloofness or indifference
There's a version of confidence that performs. It posts the wins, names the boundaries out loud, repeats mantras in the morning, and tells you — often unprompted — that it has done the inner work.
Human Behaviour
Genuinely authentic people may not be louder, more expressive, or more confident than other people — they may be the ones who quietly stopped editing themselves for the room
We have a very confused picture of what authenticity actually looks like. The word gets attached to people who are large personalities, expressive, emotionally open in public, effortlessly candid about their inner life.
Human Behaviour
The feeling that few people truly understand you may not be loneliness — it may be the gap between who you are and who you’ve had to perform for too long
At some point in your thirties or forties, if you are paying attention, you might notice something quietly unsettling about your relationships.
Human Behaviour
Few people prepare you for the strange social grief of becoming smarter than the conversations available to you
There is a particular kind of loneliness that nobody warns you about and almost no one talks about, because the moment you try to describe it honestly, you sound like you are complimenting yourself.
Human Behaviour
People who grew up in the 1970s with no scheduled activities or structured playdates may have experienced a kind of childhood that is harder to find now
My mother grew up in rural Australia in the seventies. She has told me stories about summers that sound, to modern ears, almost implausibly free.
Human Behaviour
The biggest predictor of happiness may not be income, relationships, or health — it may be the ability to be present in an ordinary moment without wishing it were something else
I want to tell you the most important finding in happiness research, and I want to warn you in advance that it's going to sound obvious.
Human Behaviour
The people who genuinely get better at life may not be the ones running the most systems or chasing the next book
A few years ago I was doing everything right, by the standard definition of everything right.
Human Behaviour
The person who can walk into a room full of strangers, hold their own, and then need three days alone afterward may not be broken — that may be confident introversion
Picture walking into a gathering of about thirty people you have never met. Good music, cold drinks, interesting conversation.
Human Behaviour
Few people talk about why very likable people can go home feeling lonely, and it may not be ingratitude or social fatigue
There is a specific kind of exhaustion that the most socially gifted people know well.
Human Behaviour
You can spot someone with genuine high status even when they have no money, and it may not be the posture or the vocabulary
There's a man I keep thinking about. I met him at a dinner in Saigon a few years ago, introduced to me as a friend of a friend.
Human Behaviour
Introverts may not be shy, antisocial, or bad at people — they may be the ones who figured out early that conversation costs them something other people get for free
Someone at a party once told me I seemed "a bit quiet." I smiled, nodded, and thought about it for the rest of the walk home.