Psychology · Philosophy · Self-awareness
You already know this. Sitting with it is the hard part.
A working library of ideas about how the mind behaves and how a life is best spent — essays, field notes, single facts, and short films. Added to every week.
160
Pieces
4
Threads
8
Terms
Weekly
Something new
Psychology
The spacing effect
October 2, 2026 · today’s idea
The same hour of study, spread across a month, is worth far more than the same hour in one sitting.
Where it comes from
Ebbinghaus, 1885, testing his own memory on nonsense syllables. One of the most replicated findings in the field.
What it looks like
Cramming feels productive because it feels hard. Difficulty and learning are not the same signal.
The question
What are you trying to learn in one push that would keep better in small doses?
Threads
Everything here hangs
off one of four hooks.
Nothing is new. It's the same handful of ideas, turned over until one of them lands on a day you happen to need it.
The library
Read it, watch it,
or take one fact and go.
Worth knowing
What actually works, and what doesn't.
Self-improvement with the evidence rating printed on the front — including the popular advice that has been tested and failed.
Load a little more than last time
The whole of strength training in one sentence, and most people skip it. Ongoing Read it Sleep StrongWake at the same time, including weekends
Regularity predicts outcomes better than duration does in several large studies. Painful for a fortnight Read it Mood StrongAct first, wait for motivation second
Waiting to feel like it is the single most common way people stay stuck. Ongoing Read itLexicon
A word for it makes it
easier to notice.
Terms from psychology and philosophy, in plain language. Once you can name a pattern, you start seeing it everywhere.
Philosophy
Ataraxia
A settled, untroubled state of mind — the goal of the Epicureans and the Sceptics alike. Not pleasure, and not numbness, but the absence of disturbance.
In practice You don't need the day to go well. You need to stop needing it to go well.
Psychology
Cognitive dissonance
The discomfort of holding two beliefs that don't fit, or of acting against what you claim to believe. The mind usually resolves it by quietly editing the belief rather than the behaviour.
In practice Notice the moment you invent a reason. That is the tell.
Philosophy
Negative capability
Keats's phrase for the ability to sit in uncertainty and doubt without grabbing for a tidy answer.
In practice Most bad decisions are made to end the discomfort of not deciding.
Psychology
Anhedonia
A reduced ability to feel pleasure in things that used to provide it. A symptom rather than a mood — and worth raising with a professional if it persists.
In practice Flatness is different from sadness, and it is the one people miss.
Philosophy
Eudaimonia
Aristotle's word for a life going well overall: flourishing through activity that expresses your character. Not a feeling you can chase directly.
In practice It is assessed across a life, not across an afternoon.
Psychology
Metacognition
Thinking about your own thinking — noticing how you're reasoning, how confident you are, and whether that confidence is earned.
In practice The gap between feeling sure and being right is where most errors live.
Philosophy
Apatheia
The Stoic aim of freedom from destructive passions. Often mistranslated as apathy; it is not feeling less, but not being governed by what you feel.
In practice Feel it fully. Just do not hand it the steering wheel.
Psychology
Loss aversion
Losses tend to loom larger than equivalent gains. From Kahneman and Tversky, though the size of the asymmetry is actively debated.
In practice You will defend what you have far harder than you'll pursue what you want.
Behind the page
I keep this mostly for myself.
A mirror doesn't tell you anything new. It just puts you where you can see it.
This started as a notes app full of half-finished thoughts — things I'd read, patterns I'd caught in my own head, ideas I kept forgetting and having to learn again. Writing them down properly was the only way they stuck.
There's no programme here and nothing to sign up for. Just a place to slow down for a few minutes and leave with one thing worth carrying into the rest of your day.