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Mind & Meaning
The psychology of ambition, isolation, and meaning under extremes — and what frontier life teaches us about being human.
Quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson: “For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.”
In 2026, wellbeing researchers suggested that simply asking people one question about how good their life is overall may be the clearest and most comparable way to measure wellbeing around the world
Thought of the day from Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu: "To understand others is to have knowledge; to understand oneself is to be illumined."
Over ten workdays, researchers sent employees on 15-minute lunchtime walks through a park, and afternoons changed — sharper concentration, less fatigue, with much of the lift carried by how genuinely people enjoyed the walk.
In 1974, psychologists found men were more likely to mistake fear for attraction after crossing a high, swaying suspension bridge
People who assembled a plain IKEA box would pay 63 percent more for it than people handed the same box already built, an overvaluation of their own labor that researchers named the IKEA effect
We tend to blame burnout on simply doing too much, but some researchers argue it grows from six quieter mismatches — workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values — between a person and the job
Artemis II astronaut Reid Wiseman on spacewalking: "I used to think I was scared of heights — now I know I was just scared of gravity"
We keep asking whether humans can survive on Mars and skipping the more important question of whether we should go at all
One of the biggest factors in whether a stranger finds you attractive may not be your face, your body, or your clothing — research suggests it is whether you appear to be enjoying yourself in the moment they first see you, with a smile substantially modifying how attractive you appear in the brief seconds when first impressions form
