Emotions, American Dream, Self-Esteem

Links and recommendations

You can now listen to my recent discussion with Charles Fain Lehman, Neetu Arnold, and Ilya Shapiro on the City Journal Podcast.

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From the archives:

The Science and Philosophy of Emotions

The Science and Philosophy of Emotions

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The Only Reading App I Use:

I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021.

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read:

These screenshots come from my Readwise app.

Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading.

Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder.

Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic.

Exclusive Offer for My Readers

Use this link →  https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial).

I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it.

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Links and recommendations:

• The Devil You Don’t Know by Darran Anderson

• Narcissism and Attachment Styles by W. Keith Campbell

• Social Connections Mitigate Genetic Risk for Depression by Madeleine A. Fugère

• Don’t Believe That The American Dream Is Dead by Liza Libes

• A meditation on incentives in the ivory tower. by Rob Kurzban

• The Link between Cannabis and Psychosis in Teens Is Real by Carrie E. Bearden

• Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories

• You can follow me on TikTok here

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Three interesting findings:

1. Liberals tend to divide the world into two camps—the vulnerable oppressed versus the invulnerable oppressors—while conservatives see everyone as similarly susceptible to victimization. Assumptions about vulnerability help explain many moral differences. (source: Outraged by Kurt Gray).

2. Holocaust deniers have an average IQ of 86, about 1 standard deviation below the population average of 100. (source).

3. People who have fragile self-esteem tend to assume that any ambiguous or even slightly negative social interactions have malicious intent. This bias makes it difficult for people with fragile self-esteem to form and sustain healthy relationships. (source: Rise Above by Scott Barry Kaufman).