Last month I asked “What automatic thoughts come to you when you think of straight white men?“. I also explored the topic with Psychology Today‘s Editor-at-Large, Hara Estroff Marano, in an audio recording for a piece there, White Men and Preconceived Notions. Some updates. . . First, context. However obvious, I’ll still say that the following is a personal account with all the biases of someone just talking to the[…] Keep reading →

Psychology Today’s Editor at Large, Hara Estroff Marano, and I continue our conversations on challenging topics. Today we continue with white men and preconceived notions of us. We were talking about topics before hitting record, I started to describe the pattern that comes up a few minutes into this recording, she lit up in the way someone who has thought about something and has something to say about it does,[…] Keep reading →

Comedians joke about stereotypes. People laugh when the jokes resonate with something in their heads. Everyone is unique, but as far as I can tell, many of thoughts of groups’ stereotypes come to mind automatically. I’m not sure if we can choose any thoughts. Here is an example of Larry David joking about Jewish stereotypes: Here is an example of David Chappelle joking about black and white stereotypes: I searched[…] Keep reading →

I love my sidcha to wake up, make my bed, cross the room, and turn off my alarm within sixty seconds. Loving the sidcha doesn’t mean I love every moment of it. On the contrary, the first few moments of it feel the same as they always have. I start with the same thoughts. Over the years, my inner monologue has come to change to purposeful enthusiasm faster. But I[…] Keep reading →

Here is an 1855 painting of Paris from a hot air balloon by an artist named Victor Navlet. The first manned hot air balloon flew in Paris in 1783. Technology didn’t advance as fast then as now, so I figure few people would have experienced it, let alone artists. People couldn’t take pictures, so the painting must have amazed anyone who saw it. No one could see the view any[…] Keep reading →

Salt I wrote about my salt experiment of going a month adding no salt to any food. As I expected, though was still surprised at the result, when I added salt after that month, my normal amount tasted horribly over-salted. Adding maybe twenty percent made things taste as salty as before. Besides reducing my salt without using as much, I also became more sensitive to all the other flavors of[…] Keep reading →

Following my post the other day Did you ever notice when someone interrupts. . . I always have more work that I can do than time. . . but when someone cancels on me I get annoyed. And when I cancel on someone they reassure me by telling me they can use the time to work. I can to when the situation is reversed, but I still get annoyed. Until[…] Keep reading →