Actually Human

Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash Humanity got up to some pretty dumb stuff in the 20th century, but at least we could take comfort in one fact: overall we appeared to be slowly getting smarter. Over decades and across most of the world people’s scores on IQ tests were slowly improving. Scientists dubbed this the Flynn Effect. Unfortunately for us it appears to be reversing.

Having a pleasant and productive conversation with someone you disagree with has never been easy. These days in America it can feel impossible. One recent Pew poll found nearly half of us think people from the other political party are “evil.” With about even odds that a discussion is going to end with someone being called the spawn of satan, it’s unsurprising we’re reluctant to talk to each other. That’s terrible for our politics.

Everyone in business used to want to be a “self-starter” or a “game changer.” These days in certain circles the trendiest way to describe yourself is “high agency.” “Early last year, the analytics site Brandwatch found there was a 500 percent jump in mentions of the phrase across X, Reddit, and other social media sites,” reports Business Insider. The phrase is suddenly all over LinkedIn, job ads, and certain corners of the media.

Photo by DJ Paine on Unsplash Listen to most of the media and you’ll come away scared silly about the youth mental health crisis in America. The crisis is “life or death” the New York Times claimed back in 2022. The tone hasn’t become any less apocalyptic since. Teen girls are in crisis, many outlets reported in 2023 in response to a particularly depressing CDC report. 20-somethings aren’t doing much better, according to the Atlantic.

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting - 2024 via Flickr These days, AI is definitely near the peak of the hype cycle, when pronouncements about a new technology reach their most fevered pitch. But even given that reality, CEOs of AI companies and other assorted AI boosters have been saying a lot of creepy and extreme stuff lately. Some of these comments are just overenthusiastic salesmanship.

Photo by Jacco Rienks on Unsplash When people throw around corporate BS terms like “blue sky thinking,” “synergistic leadership,” and “end state vision,” their goal is clear. They want to sound smart and sophisticated. But according to a new study, they are actually inadvertently revealing the exact opposite with their love of empty jargon. The new research from Cornell University organizational psychologist Shane Littrell confirms what buzzword haters have always suspected.

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash My daughter recently turned 11, and while she is not a teenager yet, she’s also not the sweet, unselfconscious kid she was just a couple of years ago. Her moods are stormier, her bonds with her friends more intense, and her eye rolls in my direction more dramatic. I am suddenly, hopelessly “cringe.” I love her blossoming independence and sharp sense of humor.

AI generated, no donkeys were harmed in the making of this image :) “Unfortunately, resilience matters in success,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently told a group of students at Stanford University, his alma mater. “I don’t know how to teach it to you except for I hope suffering happens to you.” “I use the phrase ‘pain and suffering’ inside our company with great glee,” he continued. The billionaire tech boss might be blunter than some about his belief in the character-building power of suffering.

Have you found that you now struggle to get through a whole book? If so, I have good and bad news for you. The bad news is that losing your ability to read books may be common at the moment, but neuroscience says it is a very bad sign for how our brains are doing. The better news is that science also offers a simple plan to recover your ability to read deeply again.

This is an article about how burnout, especially among the capable and contentious, probably doesn’t look the way you expect it to. I’ll explain the neuroscience of so-called high-functioning burnout and the warning signs to look out for. But before I get into the fascinating science of how you can be burnt out and not …