The Call of the Void
Why do we feel the urge to jump from high places?
Why do we feel the urge to jump from high places?
Last Writes
This Could Have Been an Email
How different generations communicate.
For working millennials, there is a general distaste for unnecessary communication—meetings or phone calls that could have been emails instead—but for older generations, there is an element of human warmth to small talk.
How False Memories Shape Personal Identity
What does it mean to remember?
As more time passes, each memory becomes a recollection of a recollection, distorting with every iteration like a game of telephone.
Off the Grid
Escaping the rat race.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The sand underfoot is white enough to seem like a deliberate cliché. The granules are so fine that each footstep squeaks. The shallows are (of course) a tropical blue-green—enough to make us forget we’re in British Columbia. White foam tops the big rollers coming in off the open ocean. There is nothing between us and Japan.
Attempting to Unplug
Solitude in the age of screens.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: There were then two glowing screens atop my desk; three, if you count my yappy little phone. I was a magazine editor at the time—or, as we now say, a “content creator.” Yet I spent my days not so much creating content as reacting to it.
Lessons From an Immortal Jellyfish
Do you really want to live forever?
This tiny jellyfish managed to sidestep death and achieve what so many centuries of human culture have romanticized: immortality.
Interior Design of the Mind
Chamber of reflection.
The way we organize our intimate, physical space has a lasting relationship with the way we think and experience life.
Lucid Dreaming
Altered state.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Can you control your dreams? According to Dr. Stephen LaBerge, a world-renowned Stanford University psychophysiologist and an authority on lucid dreaming, the answer is yes.
Workplace Epics
Tough jobs.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: As an activity that takes up a large proportion of our time, getting a job that doesn’t send you over the brink of insanity is probably a good thing. But given that most people tend to have several occupations over the course of their lives, you’re almost assured to have to endure at least one or two tough jobs.
