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Self-improvement

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

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Four ballet dancers practising at a barre, wearing black leotards and pink tights, leaning back with their left arms raised.

essayNeuroscience

Ingredients for brilliance

An immersive ‘flow state’ isn’t only accessible to great artists and athletes. You can find your flow too. Here’s how

Julia F Christensen

Two men on stage acting, one holds an apple on a stick and looks through two glass lenses held by the other man, in dramatic lighting.

essayDance and theatre

What actors know

Acting is an ancient and intrinsically human way to establish vibrant connections with one another. And it’s available to us all

John Britton

A photo of a person walking on a snowy path beside an icy river with floating ice chunks.

essayThinkers and theories

The winter of civilisation

Byung-Chul Han’s relentless critiques of digital capitalism reveal how this suffocating system creates hollowed-out lives

Josh Cohen

Elderly couple holding hands while standing in the street. The woman holds a colourful fan partially covering her face. A man in casual attire walks by on the right. Two trees and a white building with large windows are in the background, with three people looking out of one of the windows.

essayEthics

Moral progress is annoying

You might feel you can trust your gut to tell right from wrong, but the friction of social change shows that you can’t

Daniel Kelly & Evan Westra

A 3D model of a room in progress, with a floating person, computer setup, scattered items, bed, pictures on the wall, and a plant by the window.

videoComputing and artificial intelligence

Struggling to learn how to do a backflip, Nikita takes on an unusual training regimen

12 minutes

A graffitti sign in an underpass reads ‘Life is too short to be wasted on the pursuit of happiness’; it is reflected in pooling water underneath

essayHistory of ideas

Whither philosophy?

The discipline today finds itself precariously balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help

Siobhan Lyons

People in traditional and casual clothing conversing outside a historic building with ornate windows. A woman in green takes photos.

essaySelf-improvement

Many wisdoms

There are no transcendent insights that rise above human difference. Yet wisdom exists if we look in the right places

Avram Alpert

Bearded man with glasses and a yellow T-shirt looking up, standing outside near a pavement and trees.

videoPersonality

Wesley wants to solve the rooftop mystery – but does he have what it takes?

14 minutes

Bride and groom side by side in a vintage wedding ceremony, both with serious expressions, surrounded by attendees.

essayLove and friendship

The right person

Contemporary wisdom says that happiness is the measure of a marriage. But is that a harmful way of judging relationships?

Joshua Coleman

Abstract painting of a man with a pipe and a woman seated. The background includes a pink wall, yellow couch, and a small table with a potted plant.

essaySelf-improvement

The art of listening

To listen well is not only a kindness to others but also, as the psychologist Carl Rogers made clear, a gift to ourselves

M M Owen

Illustration of a person standing alone on a green hill, with a stylised, multicoloured sky in the background.

videoWellbeing

A tender poem doubles as a guide to sitting comfortably in one’s own company

3 minutes

Animated man with clenched fists in a fighting stance, wearing glasses, a red jacket, and a brown tie with a crowd in the background.

videoSocial psychology

A harrowing account of a 1970 ‘leadership seminar’ spotlights self-help’s dark side

11 minutes

Abstract art with colourful, stylised human-like figures in red, blue, and green, floating shapes overhead on a beige background.

videoNeurodiversity

Workplace diversity isn’t just about equality – it’s a competitive advantage

4 minutes

Illustration of a person meditating in a cross-legged position with graphs and documents floating around their head.

videoInformation and communication

The modern world is littered with statistical noise. Here’s how to find the signal

5 minutes

Vintage-style image of a boy tuning an old radio with coloured stars floating above.

videoCognition and intelligence

No, Mozart isn’t a brain hack for babies – here’s how music really affects intelligence

5 minutes

A poolside scene with steps in the pool, a colourful beach ball and a female mannequin in a pink swim cap leaning on the edge.

essayMeaning and the good life

Authenticity is a sham

From monks to existentialists and hipsters, the search for a true self has been a centuries-long project. Should we give it up?

Alexander Stern

Two elderly men in hats chatting at a rustic café, with others in the background, one man holding a small white cup.

essayCognition and intelligence

The science of wisdom

Psychological science can now measure and nurture wisdom, superseding the speculations of philosophy and religion

Igor Grossmann

A donkey tied to a pole in front of a wall with large black arrows pointing left. Two posters are also visible on the wall.

essaySelf-improvement

Beware of lateral thinking

De Bono’s popular theory is textbook pseudoscience: unsound, untested and derivative of real (unacknowledged) research

Antonio Melechi

A man and woman wearing broad-brimmed hats standing outdoors on a sunny day with a blue sky in the background.

ideaEthics

At times of suffering, the greatest gift is accompaniment by another

Nicholaos Jones

A woman with glasses wearing a colourful zigzag-patterned shirt who is Agnes Callard inside a room gesturing with her hands.

videoValues and beliefs

How the philosophical paradox of aspiration is resolved by a new theory of self-creation

31 minutes

A young girl sitting on a bed wearing a pink dress with a headband playing with a paper crown in a bedroom with a bookshelf.

videoSocial psychology

Do you feel like a fraud after a success? It can mean you’re doing something well

4 minutes

People studying with laptops in a modern library, viewed at night through large windows. Shelves of books are visible.

ideaEducation

Why lifelong learning is the international passport to success

Pierre Vandergheynst & Isabelle Vonèche Cardia

A metallic blue and silver fishing lure with a treble hook on a white wooden background.

ideaKnowledge

Would you rather have a fish or know how to fish?

Jonny Robinson

A woman sitting by a window on a bus, drawing on the fogged glass, with golden light illuminating her face and hand.

ideaVirtues and vices

Boredom is but a window to a sunny day beyond the gloom

Neel Burton