Here’s one of my favourite things about our brains: if you present two people with the same stimulus, they will have different responses. We’ve had different experiences, so the memory that the word ‘apple’ elicits for you might elicit something very different in me. Have you ever seen an improv…

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, in the beginning, I was born. I came out of my mother onto a sweaty, shitty bed. I was blue and grey and very, very long. I was a disgusting sight to behold. I recoloured in time and I enjoyed my childhood. I became a salesman…

Some have defined happiness as that which causes a rise in the sensation of power. Power in this sense is energy, the ability to do, to take action. Some have said that the opposite of depression is not happiness, but energy. Energy, or power. …

Often, when I write, I draw a prompt from a jar full of ‘universal concepts’ — things that ought to be recognisable to amajority of people. This includes biological traits, famous religious statements (e.g. The Ten Commandments), statements derived from The Barnum Effect, and loads more. …

I am capable of great things. I worry that circumstances have conspired against me to inhibit those great things. I worry that I have conspired against myself. It is one of my great shames. I despair at the fact. I get quite depressed about it. The fact is that this…

I have recently starting talking to God a lot more. By a lot more, I mean I’ve gone from 0–100, real quick. A lot of that is born from a re-reading of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. …

We all crave status. We all want to be the best in our field. We would like to win a promotion, an Olympic medal, a Nobel prize, an Oscar, a Grammy, a Pulitzer. There is no point denying it. We all want plaudits and praise, social status heaped upon us. …

Movement distinguishes the living from the dead. Every living thing moves in some way. Even plants, if you watch them over the course of a day, will move. Rocks don’t move. Not of their own volition. Movement is a pursuit for the living. We are like sharks. If we stop moving we die. Rather, if we stop…

Our senses are the building blocks of conscious experience. Could manipulating your senses manipulate your consciousness? In Against Creativity, Oli Mould relates the story of an architect who lost his sight. The architect found that he experienced cities differently. …