I have a new piece out in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Class Wars Come for Fertility.” Check it out here. Alternate link here.
Some topics covered:
The work I find most satisfying is often the work that attracts the least attention. My discussions on Dostoevsky’s novels take a long time to write and are far from my most read posts. Still, I keep doing it because some ideas are worth discussing even when they are not popular
South Korea has spent more than $200 billion trying to get people to have more children. Cash bonuses, parental leave, subsidized childcare. None of it worked.
In the country of Georgia, an Orthodox leader promised to personally baptize and become the godfather of every third child in a family. Births rose sharply. This challenges the modern belief that financial incentives matter more than culture
Put it this way: If people knew nothing about these outcomes and were asked what would be more likely to raise birth rates, cash transfers or recognition from a revered religious figure, what would most people guess?
71% of Democrats, 83% percent of independents, and 95% of Republicans support a photo ID requirement to vote. Yet the media debate makes the country appear far more divided on this than it actually is
The halo effect and the beauty bias
The old claim that beauty is purely a social construct. Culture matters, but people across very different societies still tend to agree on which faces are attractive
Why even introverts often get happier when they become more social
When people are asked in the abstract, they say they would rather suffer social pain than physical pain. But when they are asked to remember actual events from their own lives, reliving memories of social pain (e.g., humiliation, betrayal, ostracism) often feels more vivid and more painful than physical injuries
Personality differences show up very early. Even babies differ in anxiety, sociability, frustration tolerance, and how quickly they recover from distress
Harry Harlow’s monkey experiments with cloth mothers and wire mothers
Anxiety often grows when there is no clear goal to move toward. Achieving some a milestone can bring temporary relief or happiness, but can then leave you feeling strangely restless
A restrictive environment can suppress the behavioral expression of a personality trait, but it won’t erase the underlying trait. Once a person finds the right setting, that buried tendency can quickly reveal itself
Whether I drink alcohol or not and why
A practical trick that helped me write my first book. On days when writing felt impossible, I lowered the bar to the point of absurdity. I told myself I didn’t need to write anything; I only needed to open the document and look at it. Often that was enough to get momentum back
Rob Henderson@robkhendersonIf you don’t want to work out, just do the warmup. If you don’t want to warm up, just put on your gym shoes If you don’t want to write, just edit. If you don’t want to edit, just review your work. If you don’t want to review your work, just open the document These tricks work.3:22 PM · Dec 18, 2023 · 160K Views27 Replies · 228 Reposts · 1.96K Likes
