Psychology
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
Struggling to learn how to do a backflip, Nikita takes on an unusual training regimen
12 minutes
essay
History of ideas
Whither philosophy?
The discipline today finds itself precariously balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help
Siobhan Lyons
essay
Self-improvement
Many wisdoms
There are no transcendent insights that rise above human difference. Yet wisdom exists if we look in the right places
Avram Alpert
video
Personality
Wesley wants to solve the rooftop mystery – but does he have what it takes?
14 minutes
essay
Love and friendship
The right person
Contemporary wisdom says that happiness is the measure of a marriage. But is that a harmful way of judging relationships?
Joshua Coleman
essay
Self-improvement
The art of listening
To listen well is not only a kindness to others but also, as the psychologist Carl Rogers made clear, a gift to ourselves
M M Owen
video
Wellbeing
A tender poem doubles as a guide to sitting comfortably in one’s own company
3 minutes
video
Social psychology
A harrowing account of a 1970 ‘leadership seminar’ spotlights self-help’s dark side
11 minutes
video
Neurodiversity
Workplace diversity isn’t just about equality – it’s a competitive advantage
4 minutes
video
Information and communication
The modern world is littered with statistical noise. Here’s how to find the signal
5 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
No, Mozart isn’t a brain hack for babies – here’s how music really affects intelligence
5 minutes
essay
Meaning and the good life
Authenticity is a sham
From monks to existentialists and hipsters, the search for a true self has been a centuries-long project. Should we give it up?
Alexander Stern
essay
Cognition and intelligence
The science of wisdom
Psychological science can now measure and nurture wisdom, superseding the speculations of philosophy and religion
Igor Grossmann
essay
Self-improvement
Beware of lateral thinking
De Bono’s popular theory is textbook pseudoscience: unsound, untested and derivative of real (unacknowledged) research
Antonio Melechi
idea
Ethics
At times of suffering, the greatest gift is accompaniment by another
Nicholaos Jones
video
Values and beliefs
How the philosophical paradox of aspiration is resolved by a new theory of self-creation
31 minutes
video
Social psychology
Do you feel like a fraud after a success? It can mean you’re doing something well
4 minutes
idea
Education
Why lifelong learning is the international passport to success
Pierre Vandergheynst & Isabelle Vonèche Cardia
idea
Knowledge
Would you rather have a fish or know how to fish?
Jonny Robinson
idea
Virtues and vices
Boredom is but a window to a sunny day beyond the gloom
Neel Burton
idea
Self-improvement
How William James encourages us to believe in the possible
Temma Ehrenfeld
essay
Stories and literature
Highbrows and self-helpers
Woolf loathed it but it spurred her on. Hemingway drew ideas of manliness from it. Self-help haunted the modernist imagination
Beth Blum
video
Neurodiversity
‘A face is a hilly landscape.’ How a face-blind artist paints what she can’t recognise
5 minutes
idea
Self-improvement
Why speaking to yourself in the third person makes you wiser
David Robson