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Lessons from the road, and thoughts for the ride of your life

Scratches and Dents

Scratches and Dents - Ride of Your Life

Scratches and dents. Battle marks. Proud scars. Smile lines, frown lines, and grey hair. Each line a face tattooed forever a souvenir from many days and many nights. The one in the mirror seems like a good guy. A little old, perhaps. He must be a storyteller with all those scratches and dents. Lots of […]

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Blinded by Science? Open Your Eyes

Before you use an app to train your mind, be sure to read the fine print on its label Ten years ago I left IBM Research to start a company that will build the “technology of psychology”. Back then, most people didn’t quite understand what that was. The intersection between behavioral science and computer science […]

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Be Yourself, Act Yourself, and Be a Hero

We tend to overlook it in daily life, but people are vastly different. Even in the exact same situations, each of us provide our own unique, subjective interpretation and respond differently based on differences in culture, background, and genes. This is especially true for the way we deal with challenges. Facing the same challenges, some […]

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In the Meadows

The Meadows

When you get to the city tour it by foot Let it guide your shoes into the meadows The entrance may be through a small patio or a neighborhood park It may also be behind a sign saying “do not enter” When you get to the meadows you may not even realize it right away […]

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Why (Almost) everyone is Happy about Same-Sex Marriage

Rainbow flag

On Sunday morning I flew back from Orlando to New York, after attending the World Congress on Positive Psychology. To my good fortune, the airplane had TV service, so I could spend the two hours staring at the screen embedded in the seat in front of me. Across all channels, everyone was talking about the […]

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Putting the Happiness Back in “Young and Happy”

When we meet people who seem to be both successful and happy, we tend to think that they are happy because they are successful. Many of us were brought up to think that if we worked hard and succeeded, happiness will naturally follow. In the past few years, researchers have re-examined the relationship between success […]

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Snow and The Choice of Joy

I grew up in a warm country, and always fantasized about the snow. It seemed magical, romantic, beautiful, and the ultimate state of calm. As a child, snow represented the world that is outside of my small country. A world that is vast and exciting, where white flakes fill the air in wintertime and people […]

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The Psychological Antidote – Part II

In a previous post, the process of dehumanization was suggested as the psychological foundation leading to the atrocities conducted by organizations like ISIS. The opposite process of humanization was then suggested as the antidote for the development of extreme, violent behavior. This idea can be summarized as follows: When violent, savage behavior erupts (as in […]

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The Psychological Antidote to ISIS – Part I

The atrocities we see in the news in past months raise fundamental questions about human nature. We would like to think that humans are superior to other species. When we encounter brutal acts of violence, we say that the ones who conduct them are “animals”. Yet while animals will hunt for food or defend their […]

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