Category Archives: Evolutionary Psychology

How to increase empathy, part 1: why it seems so hard to

on July 7, 2014 in Awareness, Evolutionary Psychology, Leadership, Tips, Visualization

You want to improve your empathy because you’ve heard it’s fundamental to leadership, influence, and motivation, but find it hard to define, measure, or see in use, making it hard to improve or learn from others. In other words, empathy is important for working with people, but hard to learn, all the more so for those who lack it most. While I don’t pretend to be the most empathetic person,[…] Keep reading →

How not to lose your composure: Rational Emotion

on July 3, 2014 in Evolutionary Psychology, Leadership, Tips

Context: Losing your composure hurts you When you lose your composure you don’t get promoted. People don’t follow you if you lose your composure. You lose your ability to motivate or influence them. If you debate or argue with someone and you lose your composure and they don’t—that is, if your emotions become more intense than theirs—you generally lose the argument. People feel emotional reward when someone else’s emotions get[…] Keep reading →

Calling any emotions negative shows you don’t understand emotions

on June 10, 2014 in Evolutionary Psychology, Nature

Look at your body in the mirror. Is the human body not a wonder of evolution? Do you see anything extraneous? I don’t. It seems efficient. What our species didn’t need evolved away. What’s left is essential. Take anything away from the human body and our ancestors might not have survived and you might not have been born. Our ancestors had competition from similar species for the same resources, so[…] Keep reading →

Judging is inevitable. You choose if you communicate it.

on May 19, 2014 in Evolutionary Psychology, Tips

Nobody likes feeling judged when they didn’t ask for it. We like people to support us. We know others don’t like feeling judged either. Yet we all feel like we judge others. When someone walks into a room we judge what they wear, whom they’re with, how they act, and so on. When we walk into a room we decide who we consider worth talking to and who doesn’t. When[…] Keep reading →

How to Choose

on March 20, 2014 in Evolutionary Psychology, Leadership, Tips

Most of your identity is the culmination of the choices you’ve made. You choose all day every day. Many people have trouble making big choices, for some choosing is even debilitating. If you do, you’re holding yourself back from living your life more fully. I used to dwell on decisions too. In my second year of business school I saw many of my classmates dwelling on choices between different job[…] Keep reading →

The connection between physics and self-awareness and emotions

on February 24, 2014 in Awareness, Evolutionary Psychology, Leadership, Nature

People often ask me if I use my physics education today. As I see it, whereas physical sciences aim to make the world a materially better place, by studying and sharing what I learn about self-awareness and emotions I aim to make the world an emotionally better place. To me, physics is the study of the most fundamental parts of nature—time, distance, gravity, charge, mass, and so on. It also[…] Keep reading →

Things you never get bored of

on February 3, 2014 in Awareness, Evolutionary Psychology, Nature

Today’s post is on awareness–to note something about yourself you may not have noticed. You know how if you listen to a song too much you get bored of it, no matter how much you loved it at first? Or if you spend too much time with someone you need time away from them? I noticed a few things I never get bored of. It’s not the biggest insight into[…] Keep reading →

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