Embracing Optimism & How Algorithms Narrow Your Choices

Many people suffer from learned helplessness: the belief that they don’t have the power to make positive changes in their own lives or in the world around them. Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism will teach you how to break out of that pessimistic, powerless mindset and replace it with an empowered mindset of optimism and confidence. Seligman is a professional psychologist, teacher, and author. His theories of learned helplessness and learned optimism are based on his own laboratory studies. He began these studies in the 1960s and has continued tweaking and reexamining them to the present day.

Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness has become widespread, both in the field of psychology and among laypeople. However, Learned Optimism was published in 1990, and there have been significant advances in the field of psychology since then. Our commentary will explore those new developments as needed, provide a grounding in core concepts of psychology, and offer actionable advice.

Psycho-Cybernetics is based on the theory that your mind functions according to cybernetic principles—you can program your mind to achieve success and happiness in the same way that you’d program a machine to achieve the results that you want. Maxwell Maltz suggests a number of methods to help you raise awareness of your current self-image, build your self-confidence, and increase your ability to achieve success.

This guide separates Maltz’s ideas and techniques into two distinct parts: Part 1 discusses the theory behind Psycho-Cybernetics, and Part 2 presents the actionable material that Maltz weaves throughout his book. We also compare and contrast each key concept with up-to-date psychological research and self-improvement methods, and we expand on Maltz’s prescriptive style with actionable ideas from other authors and psychologists.

What if you could think yourself to better health and a happier life—using the power of your brain and your body, not by asking the universe to do it for you? Science writer David Robson argues in The Expectation Effect that your brain’s predictions about your body, your health, your intellect, and your emotions are so powerful that they create your reality. By changing what your brain predicts, you can change the reality your brain creates for you and the limits it sets for you.

Drawing on extensive scientific research, the book explores the expectation effects that shape your health, determine how well you age and how long you live, and influence how you respond to stress. Throughout the guide, we’ll look at the strategies Robson recommends for stopping the negative outcomes of expectation effects and creating positive outcomes, and we’ll connect his ideas to what other experts say about how you can use these effects to improve your health and happiness.

The 21st century will bring changes and challenges unlike any humans have encountered before. Globalism and technological innovations are changing the structures of societies worldwide—and the changes are happening quickly. If people don’t face these challenges and help shape the future, the world could have a class of obsolete workers whose jobs have been automated and people could lose their ability to make their own decisions. In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari highlights the biggest challenges in the modern world, and he offers advice on making sense of and navigating such transitional times.

In this summary, you'll learn how algorithms like Netflix movie recommendations are teaching you to distrust your own judgment, why religion can’t solve 21st-century challenges, and how automation will threaten the jobs of humans in every industry.

We live in an age where sophisticated technologies are increasingly pervasive. User interfaces are so intuitive that we don’t need a manual to figure out how every mobile application works—but what is it about specific technologies that allows them to integrate seamlessly into our day-to-day lives, and how did user-friendliness become the bedrock of innovation?

In User Friendly, user experience designers Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant explore the evolution of user-friendly design—how the concept emerged from the feminist movement in the 1920s, how it has morphed into the often addictive forms of technology that we have today, and how it might be leveraged to improve human well-being in the future. The authors argue that we must shift how companies apply user-friendly design principles to ensure that technology reflects the values of consumers—and doesn’t just keep people glued to screens to their own detriment. In this guide, we’ll also incorporate research showing how technology impacts the social fabric of society as well as advice on mitigating technology’s harmful effects.

For millennia, humans struggled with three serious problems—famine, plagues, and war—which led to the deaths of millions of people and to the rise and fall of global empires. People coped with these problems and answered life's questions with religion. However, in the modern era, we no longer rely on prayer—we’ve mostly overcome these three problems through the development of technology and medical knowledge.

In Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, envisions a future in which technology replaces humanist ideals and liberal government. Dissecting the concepts of religion, immortality, and technology, Harari argues that the world of the future may be run by advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence, not human beings.

You’re probably getting less sleep than you should be. Many people are more chronically sleep-deprived than they realize, and the punishments for this are severe—reduced productivity and happiness, and an increased risk of a panel of diseases. In Why We Sleep, “sleep diplomat” Matthew Walker, Ph.D. unlocks some of the mysteries of sleep based on research from both in and outside his Center for Human Sleep Science.

In this guide, we’ll explore how sleep happens, its major benefits, and the best ways to get better sleep. We’ll also discuss sleep research from other experts as well as new findings that emerged after the book was published.

Dive into the intricacies of the zipper merge with Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant in an engaging episode of "Stuff You Should Know." This technique, according to Josh, is not only crucial for improved traffic flow but is also commonly misunderstood by drivers, particularly in the United States. While German drivers have mastered what they call "Reißverschlussverfahren," the American reluctance to adopt the zipper merge is spotlighted, with societal attitudes and driver selfishness playing villain to road harmony.

Exploring beyond the asphalt, the hosts discuss the broader implications of merging behaviors, noting the stigma attached to late merging and the distracting influence of mobile phones that exacerbate traffic woes. Through a mix of educational initiatives, state-backed advertising, and the potential for clear road signage, Josh and Chuck advocate for drivers to embrace the zipper merge. They share their own commitments to the practice, ending the episode with a personal challenge to listeners to accept and utilize this method for a smoother driving experience.

Dive into a critical seasonal health conversation with Andrew Huberman of the "Huberman Lab" podcast, as he breaks down the reasons behind the surge in sickness during the winter months. With the onset of colder weather and shorter days, Huberman explores how environmental changes and human behavior contribute to the increased incidence of colds and flu. From indoor heating's effect on virus transmission to the importance of hand hygiene and social etiquette, this episode is a must-hear for anyone looking to fend off winter illnesses.

Andrew Huberman doesn't just diagnose the problem; he offers tactical solutions to keep your immune defenses strong. Learn why he champions nasal breathing and humidifiers to combat the dry air's challenge to our respiratory health and discover the importance of maintaining your core body temperature. Tackling popular health trends, Huberman also evaluates techniques like Wim Hof's method for cold exposure and breathing to ensure listeners have a holistic understanding of illness prevention as the chill sets in. For those eagerly anticipating future episodes and more insights, Huberman extends the opportunity to support research through the podcast's premium subscription, offering exclusive content and the chance to bolster one's health knowledge.