The Puzzle of Orangutans, Part II

Living in the jungle is hard: building nests every evening, extracting the nutritious stuff from thousands of plants. That takes deliberation, reasoning, inference, problem-solving, weighing the pros and the cons.

The Puzzle of Orangutans, Part I

The idea is that competing and cooperating with one's fellows takes smarts. Individual animals who are better at these social interactions are more likely to transmit their genes to future generations.  Over evolutionary time, you get a smarter species.

Thoughts as After-Thoughts

Thoughts are remnants of automatic brain processes that have temporarily captured our attention.  If we are aware of a thought, we have recreated it.

Thoughts as Dry Runs

"Our conscious experience is assembled on the fly, as our brains respond to constantly changing inputs, calculate potential courses of action, and execute responses." Michael S. Gazzaniga

Triggers and Payoffs, Part IV: What's in a Payoff?

Sometimes simply doing something is the payoff, especially when coming after a period of indecision. Of course, the same behavior may have multiple potential payoffs: enjoyable in its own right, doubly so if applauded by others, triply so if it advances one's career.

How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part VI

...many climate change skeptics don’t contest that the climate is warming.  That’s rarely the issue. More often, the argument is that the relative contribution to warming of human activity/GHG emissions hasn’t been proven to exceed 50%. Or that the pace or extent of warming is not alarming, so does not require extraordinary measures.

Triggers and Payoffs, Part III: Start at the End

All sorts of things inform our choice of payoff, for instance: ease of achieving, certainty of achieving, vividness, immediacy.... A lot of things to consider but usually these choices are made in a flash, below the threshold of consciousness, thanks to our extraordinary brains.

Triggers and Payoffs, Part II: Triggers as Affordances

...'trigger' is also "a device that releases a spring-loaded mechanism" and that’s how I mean it. A trigger in this sense is what psychologists call an “affordance”: something that presents the possibility of an action on an object or environment. An affordance is an opportunity to achieve an outcome. In this way a trigger suggests a pay-off. Just like a doorknob, a trigger is not a cause of behavior but an enticement to act.

Why Americans Don't Save, Part IV

Now let’s look at Financial Shocks, focusing on sudden cut-off of an income stream. Usually we’re talking about a job lost to employer action (being laid off) or disability. If people are less worried about financial shocks, they may save a little bit less than before.

Memes: The Stuff of Thought

Thanks to memes, we can hold ourselves apart and consider the spectacle, thereby falling into delusion and wonder.

Mindfulness and Brain Changes

According to various brain imaging studies, mindfulness meditation can change the brain in ways consistent with observed or self-reported improvements in concentration, memory, and mood.  The same has been found with prayer, cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy.

Inequality and Social Comparison

According to one study, being around the rich makes us want to buy status-enhancing "visible goods", like fancy cars or clothes. And that might reduce household savings by about 3% a year for the non-rich folks.

Why Americans Don’t Save, Part II

Between home equity, investment savings, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and supplemental insurance,  most older Americans have the assets, income streams, and protections against adversity that are the envy of the age-impaired.

Why Americans Don’t Save, Part I

The decline in savings among rich countries is global, so whatever is behind this trend is unlikely to be specific to the US.

Acceptance: Letting In, Letting Be, and Letting Go

So it’s okay for thoughts, feelings, and sensations to make an appearance – to show up at the door - but it’s actually not okay to let them in. It’s about “letting go”, not “letting in”. Acknowledge and move on.

Acknowledging Awareness

...mental activity (“thoughts and feelings”) the object of awareness, rather than sensory or somatic information. Is there something problematic about mental activity unattended by awareness, whereas sensory/somatic information doesn’t need to be supplemented with awareness?