PsycHacks

Episode 48: Winners almost always quit

You've probably heard the saying, "winners never quit, and quitters never win." In point of fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Winners almost always quit: they quit everything else except the game they're trying to win. This is because failing to do so makes players uncompetitive at the highest stages of performance -- where they inevitably compete against the players who are willing to do so.

Episode 47: Don‘t ignore air resistance

In high school physics class, we were taught to solve problems under unrealistic, ideal conditions by ignoring complexifying forces, like friction and air resistance. Unfortunately, the real world isn't so simple. When we fail to factor resistance into our plans then we generally become frustrated when they inevitably arise, and we misallocate our time and energy. In this episode, I discuss the virtues of incorporating resistance into your calculations.

Episode 46: The function of grief

If you've experienced grief, then you know how excruciating a feeling it can be. This begs the question: why is grief so painful? Why does it last as long as it does? If there's a lesson here, can't it be learned faster and with less suffering? I've wrestled with these very questions as I passed through grief at various times in my life. In this episode, I speak about what answers I've found. Grief must be as painful as it is in order to force people to stop, so that they can intentionally re-structure their lives moving forward without the lost loved one.

Episode 45: Emotions and mastery

Within every emotion is a behavioral impulse urging us to a specific action. However wise our emotions might be, it's also the case that it's certainly not always prudent to relent to every impulse they offer for our consideration. So how do we know when to "listen" to our feelings? The answer demands we pay attention to our degree of mastery within a specific domain. As a rule of thumb, the more masterful we are within that domain, the more effective uncritically relenting to your emotional impulses is likely to be.

Episode 44:”Persona 5” and social stats

"Persona 5" is one of the best RPGs of all time. In addition to the normal stats you'd find in a game of this genre, in "Persona 5" your character also possess social stats: measures of his level of mastery within the real world of social relationships. Throughout the game, the protagonist encounters social stat gatekeeping, in which certain jobs, relationships, and opportunities are withheld from him, if his relevant social stat isn't high enough. In this episode, I'll speak a little on how this concept pertains to real life and how to improve your social stats through the intentional allocation of your time.

Episode 43: The ”best years of your life”

If you're a young person and you talk with folks of an older generation, it's only a matter of time before one them tells you that your early 20s are "the best years of your life." Believing this to be true can create a lot of pressure in young folks to live life to the fullest before an inevitable decline into the various miseries of adulthood proper. But is this really the case? In today's episode, I'll be debunking the romanticization of this period of one's life, and suggesting why some people might still be hung up on this time even decades later.

Episode 42: The game of please-no

When I was back at my theatre conservatory, the entire first year of acting class was devoted to a single exercise: the game of please-no. I've since come to understand that this game is the fundamental game of human interaction. In this episode, I will briefly describe how the game is played and what the game has to teach us about the nature of human relationships. The more masterful you become at this game, the more life begins to open up and share its riches with you.

Episode 41: Roads only go where they go

In the moment before deciding to relapse into a bad habit, most people generally endorse some variant of the belief that "this time it will be different." No it won't. You've been down that road before -- hundreds, if not thousands, of times -- and you know where it takes you. That's because roads only go where they go. It's impossible for a fixed pathway to vary with respect to its destination. Pushing back against this irrational belief will significantly improve your chances of lasting behavioral change.

Episode 40: What if?

Behind every feeling is a thought. And the thought that is primarily responsible for the feeling of anxiety generally begins with the words: what if? What if I lose my job? What if I get sick? What if she says 'no'? In this episode, I will discuss the most effective rebuttal to these anxiety-provoking thoughts: a replacement cognition that begins with the words so what? So what if the feared thing happens? I will either find a way or make a way. I'll model how to do this with several concrete examples.

Episode 39: Change your story

Bad things happen. Rather than abide in meaningless and malevolent universe, people create stories to make sense of what happened to them. However, these stories can either maintain a person in a traumatic posture or facilitate healing and resilience. Victim narratives -- in which the self is the object of another's action -- keep people stuck in the past. Hero narratives -- in which the self is the subject of its own action -- help people move forward.