Recently, I received a Dutch article that translates like: the ones trying to live more efficiently, will lack time for anything. The solution is, however, quite simple: stop or silence smartphone notifications. Also see recent WSJ article: How fixing notifications changed my relationship with my phone. Our obsession with time efficiency has increasingly resulted in...
Fast vs Slow thinking
Is modern life organised to prevent us from thinking?
1 Jun, 2022
My May 27 blog, Take care of your thoughts when you are alone, touched upon a topic that has been on my mind recently - and the mind of others (eg, NRC, The Times). These others focus on the How and What, while I focus on the Why. The quote below provides an interesting start for this topic: "Spend enough time trying to have ideas and you realise that modern life is...
Tall tales make fast friends
24 Feb, 2022
Exaggeration seems to be the default in today's society. Often, people compare yesterday's weather with climate change. Recently, Elon Musk compared the Canadian PM to Adolf Hitler, a tweet that he erased quickly. In 2016, Hillary Clinton labelled Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables". I've borrowed my title from a 2018 study in the Journal of Social and...
The free and independent press
28 May, 2019
Worldwide we see lots of social change, including the search for a new equilibrium. Elections are a way of measuring such change. Hence, green and nationalistic parties are rising, while Christian and labour parties are declining. Liberals show a mixed result as they include two opposing fields. In countries with a dominant nationalistic agena, there is a lot of...
The triune brain, multi-focus and multi-tasking
10 Apr, 2018
Most likely, you have read about the reptilian, limbic and/or neocortex parts of our brain. The triune brain concept was originally formulated by neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean in the 1960s. In 1990, it was detailed in his book The Triune Brain in Evolution which is still available. Essentially, these 3 brain parts represent 3 functions within...

Fast vs Slow thinking (3)
1 Feb, 2018
This week, I noticed a 27 November 2017 Big Think article, called "Your Identity Is Almost Entirely Based on Unconscious Brain Processes". The classic executive self-control (top-down) model on human consciousness is replaced by a new front-end / back-end (bottom-up) model. The distinction between conscious, subconscious, unconscious, and superconscious is replaced...
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