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A Fascinating Story on Human Biases
In 1894, a cleaning lady in the German embassy of France found something in a wastebasket that would throw the entire country into chaos. It was a torn-up memorandum — and the cleaning lady was a French spy. She passed the memo on to senior staff in the French army, who read it and realised…
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Ruskin Bond’s Reflections on Writing
My theory of writing is that the conception should be as clear as possible, and that words should flow like a stream of clear water — preferably a mountain stream. You will, of course, encounter boulders, but you will learn to go over them or around them, so that your flow is unimpeded. If your…
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Is Everything Islamophobic?
So many things are Islamophobic now that for Islamophobic people (which has the potential to be all non-Muslims) it is hard to speak or move — let alone leave the house — without committing a whole slew of Islamophobic hate-crimes. You can be an Islamophobe if you attend the wrong opera (a production of Idomeneo…
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How to Write for the Right Audience
As a writer, you would want to be read, wouldn’t you? Your reader is the reason you write, especially if you write professionally. It could be one person, or two, or a million — that’s beside the point. The important thing is that you offer a beautiful reading experience to the reader. Therefore, it is…
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Dealing with Romantic Expectations
The central fantasy behind all the noise and anguish of relationships is to find someone we can be happy with. It sounds almost laughable, given what tends to happen. We dream of someone who will understand us, with whom we can share our longings and our secrets, with whom we can be weak, playful, relaxed…
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The Rational and Irrational Nature of Humans: Excerpts from Steven Pinker’s Book
Man is a rational animal. So at least we have been told. Throughout a long life I have searched diligently for evidence in favour of this statement. So far, I have not had the good fortune to come across it. ~ Bertrand Russell Homo sapiens means wise hominin, and in many ways we have earned…
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Are You Emotionally Healthy?
Emotional health is the sense that what is happening, is happening now. It is experiencing the world as first-hand, immediate, rather than only knowing what was experienced when you reflect upon it later. You are, as the sports commentators put it, ‘in the zone’. You feel real rather than false. You are comfortable in your…
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How to Think About a Kiss
Let us begin by picturing a couple in a cafe at eleven o’clock on a Saturday night in a large city, eating ice cream after seeing a film together. There is doubtless a biological explanation for the sexual excitement this couple are feeling, connected to an unconscious narrative about reproduction and genetics, but the man…
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