fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
What your Top 25 Most Played songs say about you
By: Rishi Kandra
Tags: Subconscious Mind, Thought Process, Human Behavior, Music, Top 25

These days you have a plethora of options to choose from when you are thinking about getting a subscription to a music streaming service. Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and lots of domestic apps make you wonder the tradeoffs you can accept.

I’ve always been inclined towards stats and past experiences when it comes to understanding and predict behavioural patterns, be it mine or someone else’s. And hence one (weird) obsession I’ve had over the years is to maintain play counts for the music I listen to. I used to get such a thrill when the order or the list of my auto-generated Top 25 Most Played songs changed — thanks iTunes! And thus far, I haven’t found any streaming service that maintains users’ play counts.

I’ll quickly list down my current Top 25 with a brief summary; which will come handy later:

Phew. That list took some compiling. Now that we have all the songs listed, we can start talking about a few things that are common and then move to the inferences we can draw. Just to highlight, this list hasn’t changed much since Q1–2017 as I moved to Apple Music, Spotify and a few others to listen to music on my phone more conveniently. So for the purpose of this discussion, let’s assume the list to start from July 2014 through June 2017. Right.

First, So most of the songs here have deep meaningful lyrics which tie up beautifully; inference, lyrics and what they are trying to signify mean more to me than just the song being catchy.

Second, Out of those, lyrics that are thought provoking and signify pain/heartbreak outnumber the ones just there for the beauty of their words or meaning; inference, there might have been a few incidents that are still subconsciously bothering me — probably losing friends or love.

Third, there are a few tracks that are from Blockbuster artists, but aren’t their most popular songs, though they might be acclaimed for the lyrical/musical beauty by the critics/fans; inference, I don’t like much to just follow the common trends and discover something that means something to me or I like to bet on underdogs — which makes less sense as some of the artists are age old.

Now if a streaming service had play counts maintained, and you could resize the window you want to look at your top 25 off, I believe we could further understand how we grew as people over the years; agreed it’ll be difficult for our generation, but it can work going forward!

3 inferences should be good for now, yeah? You can further analyze the underlying emotions and thought process — which would require a deeper understanding of human psychology. As this feels a lot like self analyzing & I tend to overthink, I’ll leave rest of the observations up to you — hit me up if you want to discuss your list or any other observations!

Even if you don’t agree with the article, I hope you at least found the list interesting. Thanks for reading!
Look from my eyes [a flower’s]
By: Maddy K S
Tags: World, Hope, Flowers, A Better Tomorrow, Human Behavior

Look from my eyes, the world is so selfish.

From the day I start blooming, I get thousands of admirers.

Everyone wants something from me, but nothing to offer me.

With a smiling face, I give everything even myself.

Look from my eyes, the world is fierce.

When I change my color to something less acceptable, I am no longer praised.

I get sprinkled with harmful chemicals, just to stay beautiful and alive.

Without complaining, I accept all of them and grow happily but to die young.

Look from my eyes, the world is scary.

In a dark night, when the cloud thunders, I shiver with fear.

On a stormy night, I swing so hard till the point, where I may break into pieces.

With the hope of a better tomorrow, I close my eyes and wait for the morning sunshine.

Look from my eyes, the world is cruel.

As soon as I am fully grown, I am taken away from my mother tree.

I am kept in water just to survive a little longer, but within I am totally broken.

I gave happiness to all the people who met me, but in the end my burial ground is your garbage bin.

All these hoping to see a better world and a better tomorrow, till then…
The Vax Madness
Tags: Vaccines, Human Behavior, Humanity

Call me crazy, although I’d rather risk a very strong cold than a blood clot.

I don’t understand what is going on with the rationality and critical thinking that human beings used to exert and cultivate through the ages; it feels to me as if we’re moving backwards intellectually as a species: I have a vague idea on what’s causing this neuronal capacity breakdown and underdevelopment, although it is not the subject of my current expression.

I’m a trader, I assess risk for a living: there’s no way that a 99.7% chance of survivability underweights the unlimited risk of an experimental drug known and unknown side effects. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, USA (click)

assume nothing! question everything…

I assume that I might be an odd case of rational homo sapiens sapiens+ or that I’ve managed in my idiocrasy to surround myself with irrational comrades, although most of the people around me: friends, family, colleagues, friends of friends, et al; are agreeing to experiment with their biology and possibly cause permanent damage to their bodies, their genetical structure: the very thing that makes them who they are, and consequently limit or worsen their remaining lifetime on this planet. And for what? I asked, and they cannot eloquently put into words nor describe vaguely what’s their thought process on such decision — as if they’re indoctrinated zombies, unable to think for themselves, executing pre-programmed orders blindly. I feel very sorry for my friends & family, in a way that I cannot even fathom to express.

Assume you’re a person under the age of 50, 40, 30, and so on which is perfectly healthy: you eat good food, exercise regularly, meditate, live mostly stress free thanks to your financial freedom — you’re pretty smart or lucky, hence you’ve managed to do well for yourself and family during the first decades of your lifetime, and you’re leading a comfortable and fulfilling lifestyle.

You’ve never contacted the Coronavirus or at least you didn’t notice if you ever had, you are generally healthy and never get much sick; you get rid of the common cold in a few days using a high dose of Vitamin C, a multivitamin and lots of liquids.

Explain to me, as data clearly shows that your mortality risk is lower than 0.3% and your chances of surviving the Coronavirus flu is over 99.7%: why in your righteous mind would you ever consider going through this list of possible side-effects: COVID-19 mRNA Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine analysis reports, UK Gov (click), and decide to inject yourself with an experimental mRNA drug for no reason whatsoever other than to protect yourself from the potential eventuality of catching a very very very high survivability illness?

Wouldn’t it make sense to any rational human being, that the risk of catching the flu outweighs the risk of a lymphatic system disorder?

A healthy young person at barely half-life, decides to give their body and health away for experimental drug testing like they’re guinea pigs in order to possibly survive a flu like virus which has close to 0 chances of causing any harm whatsoever.

I’m beyond flabbergasted.
Listen
By: Vanessa Gjerek
Tags: Relationships, Human Behavior, Communication

L-I-S-T-E-N! Is it so hard to listen? It is a combination of listening and hearing that most people can’t handle today. Sometimes it’s not enough to only listen. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone and you actually heard what they were saying instead of floating through your mind, being only psychically present? Or how often do you find yourself talking with someone and when you try to explain something, all you get from them is nodding with a few “yes”, “I see”, “hmmm” “okay” sprinkled in. This is not a conversation! It’s called a monologue. If I wanted that, I would stand in front of the mirror and talk to myself.

We have a hard time paying attention to anyone but ourselves, losing concentration so quickly. Are we just too selfish to listen to anyone else and to deal with other people’s problems and adventures? Selfishness is a disease of the new age and it goes well with depression and loneliness. Let’s try to stop for a moment and ask ourselves and others how we truly feel. And this time, listen to the answer.
Can machines solve your problems?
Tags: Problem Of The Day, Counseling, Human Behavior, Therapy, Man Vs Machine

Anxiety, depression, or just curiosity, all of these elements are without doubt part and parcel of every life, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or even financial rank. But the deeper subject is how does one overcome these feelings, one way is the never-ending library of knowledge called the internet, although it is much bigger than that, both good and bad, another way is to reach out to human touch by narrowing down the personnel whose qualities include experience in the field, well-wishing nature, and willingness to help. Following content attempts to argue that the latter option carries more weight than the former with probable instances.

Man vs interweb

When it comes to discussing one's issue with an experienced professional or just an experienced well-wisher, the vivid advantage is that the listener is bound to have dealt with similar circumstances in the past, of which solutions would have been tried and tested, hence a resolution with best possible scenario can be attained. For example, a wife presenting her insecurities pertaining to her marriage to a marriage counsellor is more likely to be provided with meaningful guidance, than by browsing internet and finding a blog named “5 ways to make your marriage work”, written by a not so certified freelancer.

While the argument states the importance of source legitimacy, the cognizance of speaking to and listening from a human must not be ignored over a written text, pre-assumed and recorded video, or an online game analysing one's problems and events to compute and auto-generate an absurd solution. Clearly, gambling in Las Vegas would have better odds. It is hope, satisfaction, and trust that rank higher having the luxury of talking to a fellow human being, surely the first step to dwindle the problems faced.

There is no questioning that the internet has become the solution hub for the majority of daily life obstacles, but make no mistake, when it comes to the area of one’s health and safety, physical or mental, or learning to drive a car, it is the experience of another that comes in handy, not the web.
Is Human Nature Good Or Bad?
By: Elizabeth Chen
Tags: Human Nature, Human Behavior

Is human nature good or bad? It’s a controversial question. People argued this topic thousands of years ago and had no answers at all. I believe that some people’s nature is good, and some people’s nature is bad.

The environment is crucial for a person’s growth. Their family, their childhood, their school, their experience in life, their work….create different people, create different characteristics of different people. A good environment can affect a person’s life very much.

But there are also some bad people who come from a good environment. How does it happen? Well, it’s about their nature. Some people’s nature is bad. A good example of that is the people who are sociopaths. Some of them are from well-educated families. They have lower moral standards than normal people. They know how to manipulate people, and they are cold blood. A good environment doesn’t change them much, it becomes a hunting ground for them. They lack empathy, they can not feel other's feelings. They only want to gain attention and benefit from others. They do not see other people as human beings, they see others as their prey, and they are the predators.

Some people’s nature is good. For example, Jeanne d’Arc. Jeanne was from a small village in the French countryside. She was a French hero that protect the French from the British army's Invasion. She was brave and great. Before the war, she was an ordinary girl in a small village, but when the British army invaded French, she took great courage to join the French army. She was illiterate, but her strategies were clever. Her good nature made her a hero, and people would not forget her.

Is human nature good or bad? We might never know the answer. But believe in good, will always be a good choice.
Why Is Empathy Important?
By: Elizabeth Chen
Tags: Empathy, Human Behavior, Humanity

Empathy definition by oxford languages is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It can help you understand other’s feelings better. It also can help you build strong friendships, relationships with other people. With empathy, you would understand people around you better. Empathy also gives you the power to support others. When other people suffer injustice things, you have strong power to support them. Me, too movement originally’s goal is “empowerment through empathy.”

Also, empathy not only makes you a good person, but it means you also have strong observation skills. Strong observation skills let you have deep insight into objects. A successful writer needs these skills. A good doctor also needs empathy. A good therapist needs empathy too.

Not only the successful writer, in your career life, strong observation skills means that you would often have new ideas in your job. You would be creative. Creative work often can be successful, in other levels, many creative people create a business. You also work better at your job, because of empathy. Why? Because you can understand people’s emotions and actions very well, that you can communicate well with your colleagues, your boss, and your clients. You would work smoothly. People with empathy are more likely to succeed in their job.

Empathy empowers people and makes this world better.
Maybe some people are suitable for lonely old age
By: Effie Gleeman
Tags: Endings, Life Lessons, Human Behavior, Writing, Reality

Emotional wounds are the hardest thing to heal. Cells can be recreated and broken down, but the seahorse records every time it passes. The will of autonomy obviously prevails, it’s not like a pendulum that folds the same way in either direction. Once it happens, it is like a mis-running pointer, which is lost within the same time difference while also losing control of the self. Gee, even the emotional tracing is so clean and orderly. Some people don’t need emotions, the world is terribly divided, and personal character traits often create the illusion. Think of it this way, how rare is the burst of real connection of complex creatures. We often tend to forget the importance of our true selves, people often miss the classic encounters — those human interactions that only appear in movies. The remnants are all happening in reality, naked and real. No, maybe you’re wrong, maybe you’re the only one hovering outside of the ‘drama’ that. The real world is already in its fifth season, and you are still obsessed with the resignation of being killed in the first season. See, even I laughed at myself.

“Empathy” does not exist in the world. We keep each other warm or we are killing each other.
How to learn.
By: Matheus Moreira Ferreira
Tags: Knowledge, Human Behavior, Curiosity, Human Beings Are Cool

These days I was thinking a lot about knowledge. Where he lives? What he eats? And the most important question: “How can I get more knowledge?”

Come with me in this journey of reflection and anger.

Learn is, in my opinion, the first thing every animal do after open your eyes for the first time and to this reflection can make sense we need to have this fact clear like water. Ok?

When you have one years and saw the way of your parents moving his mouths and hear the sound caused by this moves, you’re learning. One year later when you see your school friends starting new friendships with no clear words and no interests , you’re learning. But some years after childhood, the human being lost one of your greatest characteristics, the curiosity.

Oh, sweet curiosity. Once masked by the fear of the new, and you never can have her again…

Bullshit!

To keep yourself curious, you need to lose this fear and not just the fear of the new, but fhe fear of the shame too. The fear of the shame is the most dumb fear created by human. I can justify with a simple argument: No one has no obrigation to know anything, repeat this twice to fix this concept and understand another simple fact: No one can judge you for don’t know something. And you’re not dumb for make something wrong if you don’t have the knowledge to make this right. Repeat twice to fix the concept again!

Now we have two points, the first is about we just want to learn while the curiosity lasts and the second is about how the fears can stuck you and make you a a person with a small mind (and I’m not talking about a Bolsonaro voter but about non-curious one).

So, lost this fears, take your curiosity back from the deep of your mind!

Stay curious, stay brave!
What it means to be human
By: Taylor Hickem
Tags: Authoritarianism, Human Behavior

To be able to tacking the greatest challenges of the 21st century including climate change and the erosion of democracy, we must embrace a realistic picture of who we are as humans. The good, the bad and the ugly.

David the Chimpanzee Photo credit BBC

Quote taken from video documentary “Unfit: The Psychology of Donald J Trump”

After recounting Jane Goodall’s eyewitness account of the bloody rivalry caused by a split of a once harmonious Chimpanzee tribe into two rivals, Psychologist John Gartner, who makes the case that Donald J Trump is psychologically unfit to be president of a functional democracy, makes the connection of the lessons of our genetic ancestors to the modern trend rise of authoritarianism worldwide and the special case of Donald Trump.

The views expressed by Dr Gartner are not intended to be a normative statement of values about how humanity should behave, or a fatalistic prognosis of the worst possible interpretation of human nature, but only to remind ourselves that this dark side of humanity is just as real as the more politically correct ideals we aspire ourselves to be. Only by having a clear, realistic picture of the complexity of our nature, can we begin to design the institutions that will empower us to see more of our better, and less of our worst sides of ourselves.
Human or Illusion?
Tags: Mind, Human Behavior, Psychology, Illusion, Human

I’ve lately been observing the human behaviour. And one of the topic that I’m concerned about is I, mind and nature-blind.

I’ve seen that when any average human reads a quote or an excerpt about life or self, he tend to repost it as might he can relate to it. But also, I’ve seen a lot of people posting those quotes/excerpts that they could not relate to and I always think that is it real what we interact with of those people’s version or is it what’s inside them that’s rarely been shown to us?

How can most of the humans do have similar qualities! So, I think it's the mere illusion that our minds create. We think we are pitiful of things people don't notice. We try to make them notice it. But, we shall remember that we all are the prisoners of our own self-pitying minds. We don't really see the sacrifices someone do for us unless our love(or gratefulness) for them has made us to. I, just one letter but entirely perplexing entity.

Mind, four letters yet complicated. Once I've been questioned that is it possible that our thoughts and actions differ? Yes, why not. Our mind has capability to develop any kind of environment inside our brain irrespective of anything else. So, I believe that we develop our personality a little differently inside our minds than what we have actually developed around people. Though, we do anything and everything based not only on our thoughts but how our thoughts are translated into actions.

Nature-blind. Meaning you’re unable to differ between natures. That’s of own self or others’. The environment created in any mind is too illusionary to differ between behaviours(most of the time). That’s the reason you could see why many people can relate to a same thing even when you think they can’t. After all, every situation that you can relate to is temporary. 'cause, nothing lasts forever and nothing can be your nothing in that case.

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-irah
You’re welcome, here
By: Az Roberts
Tags: Connection, Community, Human Behavior, Depression

The waitress walks over and greets me with a smile. She warmly asks ‘how are you this morning?’ and takes my coffee order.

A small group arrive at another table who’ve been exercising together. They discuss their mornings’ workout and encourage each others improvements. High-fives all ‘round. The connection between them is clear. It’s a perfect stock-photography moment.

Everyone’s included. Everyone matters.

It got me thinking about the all too common flip-side, something that’s become more acute since we’ve spent so much time disconnected during COVID.

If you’ve ever been made to feel unwelcome. Alone, or worse, being intentionally excluded or just not missed. It sends a signal to your brain that there’s something wrong with you. You’re not enough. You’re not valued. You’re not one of us. You’re not welcome. You don’t matter.

Disconnection and loneliness are a very real public health issue that’s killing us.

Be the person who makes space for others, who makes people feel included and connected. Be the person who’s interested in others wellbeing and listens. Who shows them they’re going to be ok. That says ‘You’re enough’, ‘you’re welcome’ and ‘you matter’.

Create connection. Grow communities.

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/personal-best/pillar/in-focus/loneliness-the-public-health-issue-we-should-all-know-about
The Dunning-Kruger Bias: The stupid are usually cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubts.
By: Abhishek Chakraborty
Tags: Confidence, Human Behavior, Behavioral Economics, Psychology, Cognitive Bias

Sarah is an amateur singer. She sings in house parties, and friendly gatherings. She sings pretty well, and actually enjoys it too. She plans to make a career out of it.

She participated in a local signing competition recently, but wasn’t able win. Her friends suggested to go to a singing class and take proper voice training which she has been resisting. She thinks she sings pretty well already, and the judges in that competition weren’t fair with her. Maybe YouTube is a good place to start and get some recognition. After putting up a couple of videos and not getting many views, she is trying Instagram — shorter videos would be better. People these days don’t have the attention span.

Another amateur singer saw her sing on Instagram and gave some suggestions in the comments — she should focus on her pronunciation and breathing — which Sarah ignored. She wants to become a star and has no regards for such amateur talents. She knows what she is doing. One day she’ll become famous. She already has the talent. It’s just a matter of time.
The Outcome Bias: If you don’t meet an accident the first time, you are very likely to drink & drive again.
By: Abhishek Chakraborty
Tags: Business, Human Behavior, Behavioral Economics, Psychology, Cognitive Bias

Rajeev runs a product company. He recently had to fire his CMO. He feels this is his worst decision in the last couple of years. This has hurt his company the most.

“Since we fired him, the search for a replacement has been awful. We haven’t had anybody come in who actually turns out to be as good as he was. Sales are falling. Employee motivation is record low,” he laments.

That clearly sounds like a disastrous result, but it would be good to understand how he went about making the decision. Other than that it didn’t work out, what else was wrong with it?

“We looked at our direct competitors and comparable companies, and concluded we weren’t performing up to their level. We thought it was probably a leadership issue. We could definitely perform and grow at that level if we had better leadership.”

“We started working with our CMO to identify his skill gaps. We even hired an executive coach to work with him on improving his leadership skills, and get his major weaknesses identified.”

“But it still failed to produce improved performance. We debated splitting his responsibilities and have him focus on his strengths, and moving other responsibilities to a different executive.”

“But this idea was rejected, concluding that the CMO’s morale would suffer, employees would likely perceive it as a vote of no confidence, and it would put extra financial pressure on the company to split a position we believe one person could fill.”

It sounded like Rajeev had a reasonable basis for believing they would find someone better. The company had gone through a thoughtful process and made a decision that was reasonable given what they knew at the time.

It sounded like a bad result, not a bad decision. The imperfect relationship between results and decision quality devastated Rajeev and adversely affected his subsequent decisions regarding the company.

Rajeev had identified the decision as a mistake solely because it didn’t work out. He obviously felt a lot of anguish and regret because of the decision. He stated very clearly that he thought he should have known that the decision to fire the president would turn out badly.

He was not only resulting but also succumbing to its companion — Hindsight Bias. Hindsight bias is the tendency — after an outcome is known — to see the outcome as having been inevitable. When you say, “I should have known that this would happen,” or, “I should have seen it coming,” you are succumbing to hindsight bias.

I’m yet to come across a founder who acknowledges a bad decision where she got lucky with the result, or identifies a well-reasoned decision that didn’t pan out. You generally link results with decisions even though it is easy to point out indisputable examples where the relationship between decisions and results isn’t so perfectly correlated.
Standardization in UX: the 5-minute checkout
By: Teisanu Tudor
Tags: Design, Ecommerce, Human Behavior, User Experience Design, UX

Standardization in UX: the 5-minute checkout

An experienced designer would probably start with a mind-blowing quote “[mind-blowing quote here]” from a cool book that I’m too lazy to read. As you might have notices, this is slowly becoming a standard in most articles; good and bad. That’s the thing with standardization throughout the world, values are mixed and mushed together for the sake of speed and imitation based success.

Standardization shouldn’t mean loss of identity

Standardized libraries, components, pages, persona templates, idea matrix, demo presentations, ads, campaigns, deployment plan, questionnaire and many more. It almost becomes more important to be able to replicate and scale something than the value of the thing itself.

300 Seconds

A friend asked me about UX design jobs in Amsterdam. Since I have been applying for more than 100 jobs for two months and went through a few interviews, I helped. There was one sentence in a job description that formed a strong enough neural path in my brain to motivate me to write this. It sounded like this:

“… our vision: to create an experience for our customers to buy and sell in 5 minutes with a smile.”

The future Product Designer would have to achieve this goal for a Dutch e-commerce page called Marktplaats, part of the e-bay group. Both me and my friends are constantly using this website, thus I am somehow aware of its complexity. That's why I instantly imagined myself in that position, with the manager standing in front of he saying the word: “…5 minutes with a smile” . It felt like spending 1100$ on a phone — completely unnecessary.

Let me tell you why — maybe I’m totally wrong, maybe I’m not.

Marktplaats?

The name means market place in English, describing perfectly what the website aims for. It’s a place where both companies and individuals can sell or buy pretty much anything you can imagine from LEDs to beach houses.
The Research That Literally Shocked People to “Death”
By: Kim Mia
Tags: History, Human Behavior, Psychology, Research, Humanity

The Milgram Shock Experiment was a social psychology study, and one of the most famous studies on obedience, conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. Their objective was to measure the obedience of the participants to authority figures while being instructed to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

Participants were led to believe that they had to administer electric shocks to a “learner” person sitting in the next room. These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.

The experiments began in July 1961, a few months after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Those accused at the World War II Nuremberg War Criminal Trials often used obedience from their superiors as their primary defense when asked why they committed acts of genocide. Milgram wanted to understand if the main reason behind the Nazi killings in World War II was Germans simply “following orders” or if other motives were responsible for their behavior.

The Setup

Milgram selected participants for his experiment by newspaper advertising for 500 male participants between 20 and 50 years old to take part in a “study of learning” at Yale University.

The “experimenter” (E) was in charge of the session. The “teacher” (T) was the volunteer participant in the experiment. And the “learner”(L) was an actor pretending to be the subject of the study.

Photo showing the experimenter (E), teacher (T), actor known to be the “learner” (L); Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The subject and the actor arrived at the session together. The experimenter told them that they were taking part in a scientific study about memory and learning, to see the effects of punishment on the person’s ability to memorize content.

Then both the subject and actor drew slips of paper to determine their roles in the experiment but unknown to the subject, both slips said “teacher”, which guaranteed he would end up as the “teacher” regardless of which slip he drew.

The next step was to take the teacher and the learner into an adjacent room where the learner was strapped into what appeared to be an electric chair. In addition, the experimenter would dress in a lab coat to appear to have more authority.

The teacher and learner were then separated so that they could communicate, but not see each other.

The teacher was then given a list of word pairs that he was supposed to teach the learner. After going through the list once, he would read the first word of each pair and the learner had to choose the second word from four possible options. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt with each wrong answer.
Intentional down time saved me once
By: Erin Sephel
Tags: Loneliness, Human Behavior, Personal Growth, Alone Time, Psychology

I realize my case is a little extreme, but it speaks to the undeniable power of solitude when we spend it well.

Research shows that giving our brains moments of respite restores our sense of self. And according to my therapist (*imaginary source link*), carving out time for ourselves does wonders for our sense of self-worth too.

I think our biggest hurdle when it comes to purposeful alone time nowadays is the little distraction device we keep on-hand at all times. In the “between” moments when our brains realize they’re doing nothing at all—when we’re sitting in traffic, cooking dinner, falling asleep, waking up, standing in line at the grocery store—we instinctively reach for our phones. It’s starting to feel less like a choice and more like a habitual tick.

I don’t think it’s so much a sign of weakness as much as it is just our natural adaptation to our own inventions. This psychological phenomenon—or whatever you want to call it—was inevitable.

We’re social creatures. We crave connection. When we feel like we’re connecting with someone else, we basically take a hit of dopamine—our stress hormones level out, and our pleasure hormones bubble up in happy little bursts.

But when we feel lonely, our stress hormones elevate. And we experience an actual fight or flight response. To combat it, we try to create a sense of connection in the way that’s most available to us: through our phones.

In a sort of simulated way, our phones make us feel less lonely—even if only temporarily. They’re what we turn to when our melodramatic brains are yelling at us to connect with someone and threatening us with bouts of inexplicable sadness.

But what if instead of caving to that urge, we decided to do something else? What if we leaned into the time alone, using it to reconnect with ourselves, rather than piddle our time away scrolling our way to mild (if not faux) fulfillment?

My talk below explores a reality in which we choose to spend our down time more deliberately. I share more about my personal experience with intentional down time. And I offer ways we can all use down time to live happier, more fulfilled lives.
Cracking the Code to Human Interactions. Part 3: Cause
By: Ishtiaque Khan
Tags: Cause And Effect, Human Behavior, Emotions, Violence, Logic

Types of interactions

In the previous article, we went a bit into the details of different types of interactions which humans experience throughout our lives, broadly categorized as Logical, Emotional, False and Violent. We also looked into some terms which are relevant to the understanding of the types of interactions.

A brief summary of the four types of interactions from the previous article:

Logical (or rational)

Interactions which are based on sound facts and methodologies.

Axiom: Self evident realities which do not require any proof or evidence and the acceptance of which is necessary for any rational interaction. For example belief that the universe, time and space exist; belief that 1 + 1 = 2, etc.

Premise: Any statement which is assumed to be true, while making another statement or deriving a conclusion.

False premise: Any premise which has been proven to be false. Related article: Lie Detector…!

Wrong questions: Any question which is based on false premise(s).

Argument: Drawing a conclusion based on some premises.

Deductive arguments: The structure of reasoning where two premises are used to make a conclusion.

Inductive arguments: This structure of reasoning where probability is used to arrive at a conclusion.

More on this…

Emotional (or irrational)

Interactions which are based on human emotions and cognition.

Subconscious emotional interaction: Any emotional interaction which bypasses our conscious decision making process.

Conscious emotional interactions: The often seemingly logical interactions, which in reality are based upon our conscious emotional judgement instead of deductive/inductive arguments.

More on this…

False

Interactions which are based on unsound premises and methodologies.

False premise: Any premise which has been proven to be false. Related article: Lie Detector…!

Wrongly structured arguments: Improperly constructed arguments where the premises do not lead to the conclusion in the way it is presented (either deductively or inductively).

More on this…

Violent

Interactions which are based on uni-directional communication, where “the other” is not allowed to interact.

More on this…
The Cost Of Things
By: Alex Insouratselou
Tags: Existentialism, Consumer Behavior, Human Behavior, Society, Money

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

What is more expensive? A loaf of bread when you are full? Or a loaf of bread when you are hungry?

When humanity will find a method to measure the real price of things its when it will find the real balance. It is when peace and war will be a forgotten concept. Erased from dictionaries. The absolute exact dose of feeling satisfaction can be measured. But how?

Every single thing is unique. People can’t understand that. The human intelligence is not ready yet for such great invention? Or they are ready, they were always been but they were just lazy. Since a human is born everything is so complex and chaotic, in his mind and his surroundings, he just starts to realize reality. His surroundings teach him how to express his nature. He feels, he starts to compare things based on a non-accurate price. Too much information to process at this stage. So he simplifies it.

Because every single thing is unique that also means every single person is unique. Every single person has his own needs. His own method to compare things. The human mind is always at an ongoing process of an unstable comparison of things. This process can be stabilized? Its just a matter of time? Time could be the only price tag? If we were all the same person yes.

If we only learned to predict accurately the exact amount of time a person will live but we must solve this question first.

Is the individual trapped in his own freedom? Will he stop consuming more than he needs? Will he stop comparing his consumption?
Some Cool Psychological Facts — 2
By: Ayush Dhruw
Tags: Lifehacks, Life Lessons, Human Behavior, Psychology, Self Improvement

Some cool psychology facts — 2

People see you 20% more attractive than you think you are, according to a study.

When talking to someone, use their name; this will make them like you more.

Severe depression can cause us to age faster; this is by increasing the aging process in cells.

The way you dress is linked to your mood; changing your wardrobe to nicer clothes makes you more unlikely to suffer from depression.

An ant’s sense of smell is greater than that of a dog.

Study shows being dumped causes frustration attraction; that’s why many people still hold on to the ex that dumped them.

If a person speaks less, and when they speak, they speak fast and straight to the point, they are more likely to keep secrets.

If you are always worried what other people will think, you will never be happy.

When trying to convince someone something, make sure they are seated and you are standing; this will help you convince them fast enough.

and you are standing; this will help you convince them fast enough. Bananas contain a chemical that naturally helps make someone happy; this is the same chemical found in Prozac.

For Point no. 1 : when you look in the mirror your left hand is your right and vice versa… This also applies on your face: your right side will be your left and this is the view you will be seeing and other people looking at you will be seeing the actual view. So they’ll be seeing the best view that you never actually get to see.

Here’s a photo of one of my models I’ll use to demonstrate.

To me the original photo has the model looking far much prettier than the mirrored; the face features look more well-positioned in the first image. Most phone cameras automatically mirror your pics e.g. iPhones. That’s why you see you look good before or when taking the “selfies” but when you go to the gallery to check them out you find you like only one.
How to Maintain Virtual Eye Contact
By: Len Morse
Tags: Connection, Virtual, Human Behavior, Eye Contact, Webcam

How to Maintain Virtual Eye Contact

Author/Hello, Dave.

You’re zooming with friends or coworkers. While making a point, saying something significant, or just chatting away, you look directly at someone. They’re paying attention and probably looking back at you on their screen, but you can’t be sure.

Laptop webcams are built into the top of the monitor, not in the center where your eyes spend most of their time. We all know making eye contact is important, but how can you when technology won’t let you?

Pretend it’s a TV camera — your friends or coworkers are the live audiences.

Whether you speak to one person or a virtual room full of listeners, meeting their eyes can:

Show respect

Communicate importance

Create connection

Reveal feelings

Project confidence

You can tweak your normal in-person eye-to-eye habit by glancing at the camera every few seconds. Even if you feel a little silly at first, talking to your home version of HAL9000’s little red AI dot, virtual eye contact is still worth your effort.

Learn to love the dot, folks. Your audience is in there.

In a business scenario, look up at the lens when you want to make a point. If there’s a wall behind your laptop, it’s also a good idea to attach notes just behind the cam so you don’t lose eye contact, especially when you have a lot to read to your customer or client.

For example, when I log on to my investing service, I see pre-recorded experts providing all sorts of business data as they speak into the camera. They’re showing respect, communicating the importance of their information, and projecting the confidence they have in their data, even though it’s not a live conversation.

Considering a teleprompter or other technology to keep your eyes up? That’s your call.

Socially, is it even worth making eye contact at a long-distance birthday party or your weekly game night? Yeah, it’s still a good idea, even if it’s not that important.

This helps with personal scenarios, too. During a recent date, the woman I was speaking with thanked me for looking directly at the camera. She said it helped create a connection between us.
You Are Special!
By: Hippiyyogi Rahart
Tags: Happiness, Higher Self, Human Behavior, Feel Good, Special Needs

Every individual is unique and beautiful in their own ways. This has nothing to do with the caste, creed, profession, body, social status, or any particular accumulation.

This being said, every single being on this earth deserves to live happy, joyous, and feel special about themselves — no matter how they look, how they perform in social and professional life, how they are perceived by various people around.

It is the personal spaces that define true happiness & joy of life. It is more about how individuals/you feel about themselves/yourself and has nothing (least) to do with anything or anyone.

“ Every naked child is born special — and deserves to be special — just the same way — being totally naked. “

You are special in every way and this is an understanding, a realization. This also means that “I” don’t need anyone or anything to make me feel special. Feeling special is natural. It is innate.

Somebody or something could make me feel special at times. This could though lead to dependency and also creates vulnerable spaces for exploitation. ( Traditional marriage/relationships (all kinds) is an example to the said. )

Not feeling special on the other hand is totally unnatural. It is a fuck up that possibly happened in the life journey. This is too common, nothing to be too dramatic about, and as, most of it (all) is unintentional (possibly). Not feeling special is a reason for most humans to find and seek validation from others and the world. “ Not feeling special “ goes pretty deep and I don’t think you have the capabilities to enter those territories, yet.

In case you do, in case you have the courage and sincerity to go those depths of your being or simply for the fun to find where and when your special feelings got screwed and how? you could write to me at rahart.love@gmail.com

A short story would surely help me to know whether I could consider a further discussion. I shall soon write a short story on how I found my special feeling back on my personal blog site www.hippiyyogi.com

Whether you choose to heal it or not — I still say you are special the way you are and you should admire yourself for who you are. It is a strong way to realign yourself with Nature and start to feel the lightness at heart and calmness in mind. There is no one and nothing in this world that has the power to make you feel miserable — until you feel so and let someone/somebody destroy you.

* Feeling special is also a great way to heal yourself Try it and let me know. Drop a liner or two if you care to share your insights or thoughts.

Live High. Live Crazy.

You are awesome. Keep Smiling. Keep Shining.

Share it. If it’s worth it.
Yawn, a silent scream for…
By: Sofia Balali
Tags: Human Behavior, Behavioral Science, Yawning, Brain, Neuroscience

Reasons

Fatigue

Sleepiness

Boredom

…and more

When

We are awake

We are drowsy

We imitate others

Our state of alertness is changing

The conditions within our body are changing

The mechanisms of yawning are quite unclear, but we cannot negate that overall, it is a stereotypical reflex consisting of a single deep breath and the stretch of jaw and trunk muscles.



So, why do we yawn?

Biologically related theories support that yawning is linked to brain temperature and oxygen levels.

Regarding the brain temperature, yawning is considered mechanism of temperature regulation, like the computer ventilators starting when our PC temperature rises.

We yawn in our effort to inhale more air, quickly and in one breath, and decrease the temperature in our brain.

As per the oxygen levels, when we are tired, we stop taking deep breaths. Consequently, CO2 levels rise, causing adenosine, an organic compound playing a key role in sleep(it is the compound caffeine tries to fight to promote wakefulness), to increase as well. Increased adenosine means extra sleepiness, so we want to get rid of it by breathing in fresh oxygen and breathing out C02.

But we do not only yawn when we are tired or drowsy. We do it when we wake up as well, when we are supposed to be refreshed. In this case, it is proposed that we yawn to stretch our internal organs and liven the body. It is a way of getting out of bed easier and faster. I would say it is the first breath after comma.

Other theories try to explain it based on its evolutionary and social value.

Collective Yawning

Scientists propose that animals use yawning as a signaling mechanism to protect the members of their tribe. In this way, animals try to communicate a change in the internal or environmental conditions to others. Supposing that yawning originates from the brainstem and it is a primitive reflex, it is not odd that humans, other mammals, reptilians and birds, having a similar brainstem yawn too, probably for the same reason.

Yawn as Social Mirroring

Yawning is probably related to our “mirror neurons” as well, which fire up when we recognize a behavior as useful and we want to imitate it. When we see another person yawn, we do it as well (like laughing) and try to synchronize our behavior. Chances to yawn increase six-fold when you catch another person yawning, so we could conclude that it is highly contagious.

Our ability to resist yawning is limited, especially when another person is around and instructs us not to do so. Once we start, we cannot easily suppress it.

The Yawning Center

Scientists suggest the paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus

Fun facts

We yawn approximately 20 times a day

The average yawn lasts around 6 seconds

The bigger the brain, the longer the yawn

Even fetuses in utero yawn
Human music
By: Paulina Lanz
Tags: Fade, Crossfade, Human Behavior

Maybe breaks can help tell sonic narratives apart

Ever since a few years ago, I decided to pursue monotasking. I used to be proud of my multitasking skills, until the moment when I realized it made me procrastinate instead of getting things done. I struggled in my attempt to switch-task from sound diary to soundscape assignment. When I was working on one, my signal-tunning brain switched to the other. After a few failed attempts, I outsourced to Shazam.

I rediscovered my Shazam account last year (shout-out to COMM307), when I was keeping track of release dates, artists, titles and labels in a timely manner. As I went to Shazam a resource this time around, I realized that my pending playlists are stacked next to the novels I’ve been meaning to read. For that reason, this week’s listening exercise is divided into three sections:

The sounds that I actively listened to while working on my Soundscape Assignment (Soundcloud playlist) The background music that Shazam made me actively listen to (Human music playlist on Spotify) The Spotify-curated playlists that I discovered (Café con Leche) and re-discovered (Inevitable Radio); followed by the playlist that Spotify curated for my dog (quite randomly, I might add).

This week brought more music-as-signal, rather than music-as-noise. I feel overindulged.

*Sips coffee and hits play*