As someone who recently wrote a book reviewing all of psychology (Psych—now in paperback!), I hear from a lot of people who think my field is bullshit. Thanks for reading Small Potatoes! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work Sometimes, the skeptics don’t know much about the kind of research psychologists do. They reject psychology because of something they heard from an internet guru like Andrew Tate or because they had a bad experience with a psychiatrist. Sometimes, their skepticism has a religious source; they are convinced that everything worth knowing about the mind is already in the Bible, the Talmud, or the Koran.
What about making a habit of spending more time remembering happy/meaningful events? Seems more actionable than trying to engineer experiences. So much of our plans can be out of our hands.
And if that sounds like an obvious idea it’s not one I had heard about until recently. Up until then I thought one’s only options during spare time were rumination, worrying, distraction or focusing on the present.
There’s also the possibility of imagining nice things that never actually happened 😎
This is why I actually print photos into a photobook. They sit in the living room and my kids will look at them and remember our happiest and most fun moments. (It's also where they get to say "let's do that again!" but still worth it.)
There's a psychiatrist-turned-neuroscientist (Tara Swart) who talks about mindfulness and intentionall mind wandering. You can train your brain to minimize the wandering mind or the zooming in on negative memories, activities or events. I've seen how this can work but it requires consistent practice to 're-wire' the brain's neuropathways to minimize the negative and maximize the positive.
Touché to Small Potatoes Paul. My 45 year old son and I go round and round about the value (in his case no value) of psychology. I respond with “it’s unkind and fool hardy to diminish my years of study and hard work”, which doesn’t deter him. I will forward your blog but he won’t read past the first few paragraphs. This “kid” has an MBA that he also says is useless, which I know is untrue because we all know it helps advance his career as well as his pay grade (is there a psychological study on that?) in finance. He’s also a Joe Rogan fan whom we all know (except my kid) is a big fat blow hard. Anyway, your timing is impeccable and now I’ll finish reading your sample articles.
There's one in every family. I bet he also owns crypto and likes to send hour-long YouTube videos to the family chat explaining his positions on everything.
Hi Paul. Great blog. From my philosophy priors, this reads as misleading:
"Memory is not an accurate recording, and despite what many of us think, our recollection of the past is highly distorted. False memories are not difficult to implant, and if you think you have an accurate memory of something that happened a year ago, you are almost certainly wrong."
Certainly some kinds of memory are not accurate recordings. Yet we remember a multitude of things accurately, for example, my own name, the names of my family members, how many days there are in a year, how many hours there are in a day, the country I live in, the year it is, etc., etc.
And a conceptual note: all memory is knowledge acquired in the past but is not about the past. See the above examples. That there are 12 months in a year is not about the past, yet I learnt that fact in the past.
Thanks. I thought it would be clear from context ("something that happened a year ago"), but I'm talking here about episodic memories, not semantic ones.
Even here, the claim could be challenged. If someone tells me that a year ago, they lived in Boston, they're probably right. It's the details that are inaccurate.
Paul, in your inaugural Substack post, you said that one of your intended topics was, "The sorry state of positive psychology". I'd be really interested in hearing what you have to say on that subject. Any plans to write that post soon? Regardless, thanks for all the good stuff here. I also listened to your lectures on Yale Open Courses.
the graph is a bit confusing -- for the positive things (like kiss) it's how much you would pay to get it; for the negative things (like shock), it's how much you'd pay to AVOID it
What about making a habit of spending more time remembering happy/meaningful events? Seems more actionable than trying to engineer experiences. So much of our plans can be out of our hands.
And if that sounds like an obvious idea it’s not one I had heard about until recently. Up until then I thought one’s only options during spare time were rumination, worrying, distraction or focusing on the present.
There’s also the possibility of imagining nice things that never actually happened 😎
This is why I actually print photos into a photobook. They sit in the living room and my kids will look at them and remember our happiest and most fun moments. (It's also where they get to say "let's do that again!" but still worth it.)
There's a psychiatrist-turned-neuroscientist (Tara Swart) who talks about mindfulness and intentionall mind wandering. You can train your brain to minimize the wandering mind or the zooming in on negative memories, activities or events. I've seen how this can work but it requires consistent practice to 're-wire' the brain's neuropathways to minimize the negative and maximize the positive.
It can be a life’s work in at least some cases 🤪
"The pleasure of anticipation" reminds me of your lottery post.
Anticipation of travel gives lots of pleasure. One study suggests more pleasure than the trip itself:
https://adarose.com/blogs/news/vacation-anticipation-always-plan-for-your-next-trip#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20study%20from,and%20months%20before%20the%20trip.
interesting! -- thanks.
Touché to Small Potatoes Paul. My 45 year old son and I go round and round about the value (in his case no value) of psychology. I respond with “it’s unkind and fool hardy to diminish my years of study and hard work”, which doesn’t deter him. I will forward your blog but he won’t read past the first few paragraphs. This “kid” has an MBA that he also says is useless, which I know is untrue because we all know it helps advance his career as well as his pay grade (is there a psychological study on that?) in finance. He’s also a Joe Rogan fan whom we all know (except my kid) is a big fat blow hard. Anyway, your timing is impeccable and now I’ll finish reading your sample articles.
There's one in every family. I bet he also owns crypto and likes to send hour-long YouTube videos to the family chat explaining his positions on everything.
>internet guru like Andrew Tate
Too kind. Seems a rapist and human trafficker
fair enough.
Excellent post! I would be happy to have a paid subscription for content like this😉
I'll opt for a healthy dose of extra mild discomfort myself.
Hi Paul. Great blog. From my philosophy priors, this reads as misleading:
"Memory is not an accurate recording, and despite what many of us think, our recollection of the past is highly distorted. False memories are not difficult to implant, and if you think you have an accurate memory of something that happened a year ago, you are almost certainly wrong."
Certainly some kinds of memory are not accurate recordings. Yet we remember a multitude of things accurately, for example, my own name, the names of my family members, how many days there are in a year, how many hours there are in a day, the country I live in, the year it is, etc., etc.
And a conceptual note: all memory is knowledge acquired in the past but is not about the past. See the above examples. That there are 12 months in a year is not about the past, yet I learnt that fact in the past.
Thanks. I thought it would be clear from context ("something that happened a year ago"), but I'm talking here about episodic memories, not semantic ones.
Even here, the claim could be challenged. If someone tells me that a year ago, they lived in Boston, they're probably right. It's the details that are inaccurate.
Paul, in your inaugural Substack post, you said that one of your intended topics was, "The sorry state of positive psychology". I'd be really interested in hearing what you have to say on that subject. Any plans to write that post soon? Regardless, thanks for all the good stuff here. I also listened to your lectures on Yale Open Courses.
Thanks, Alex. yes, it is something I'm planning on writing, though other posts are ahead of it.
I don't understand the graph with the kiss and the shock -- doesn't it show, that the shock is preferred to get in 10 years time?
the graph is a bit confusing -- for the positive things (like kiss) it's how much you would pay to get it; for the negative things (like shock), it's how much you'd pay to AVOID it
Ah,thank you!