“Why, when I walk down the street, am I not being constantly bombarded by people remembering Looney Tunes?” –Patrick, Mind Reader I find that much of my day is spent thinking about shit that doesn’t matter. Idle worries, unimportant concerns, egocentric fantasizing that stays in my mind because it would be interesting to no one but me. I feel like my time would be better spent thinking about enjoyable things, like remembering Loony Tunes. If a mind reader walked past...

“Coraline [was] a huge risk. But these days in animation, the safest bet is to take a risk.” –Henry Selick Many people are risk averse. It’s one of humanity’s natural proclivities. It’s an offshoot of our loss aversion, where we put much greater weight on preserving what we have rather than acquiring more. $20 is not $20 – we value it differently depending on whether we already have it or not. The problem is that sometimes the safest bet is to take...

The human mind is a powerful thing. It’s so powerful it can make some things true simply by believing in them. The Placebo Effect is the most stark example. When given a treatment with absolutely no medical benefit whatsoever – a sugar pill, for instance – sometimes patients will either think they have or actually experience an improvement in their condition, simply because they believed the treatment might help. Taking action helps, even when the action itself has no clinical...