I’m so glad you’re here, and I look forward to learning and sharing with you. The goal here is to build a community, buttressed by three shared values: curiosity, generosity, and fun.

I love to learn and my guess based on your substack browsing is that you probably do, too. My favorite topics (and the topics I’ll spend most of the time writing about) include: psychology (both broadly and with special attention to social and evolutionary disciplines), sociology, digital cultures, the human-technology relationship, and the evolution of culture.

I spend a fair portion of my day reading, watching and listening to folks far more intelligent than I am to satiate my own curiosity, and I’m at the point where if I don’t share some of that knowledge or try to put it into my own practice, I’ll lose it. So, this blog is really to help me learn and cultivate my own curiosity as much as it is anyone else. 

That said, I will make mistakes! Probably many, in fact. I promise to do my best to check my facts thoroughly, and to make corrections when necessary. Just remember not to take me too seriously, and kindly point out your concerns to me when you see something that may be off the mark. You really shouldn’t be accepting a monkey’s word as gospel anyway.

Other than your leniency towards my fallibility, I ask you to be generous to yourself and to others: never assume the worst. I encourage you to start that practice with yourself explicitly because I find that the people who are the most unkind to others never practice kindness towards themselves. It’s often very easy to see character flaws instead of an honest mistake. As my dad always told me: mistakes are really just learning opportunities. Once you learn to let yourself make mistakes, it can be easier to allow the same of others.

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” (Hanlon’s razor)

Be courteous and respectful in the discussions and comments. We all know the expression about making assumptions. Plus, making unforgiving conjectures is a surefire way to shut down learning and community. In other words, not cool, dude.

With that said, I think we can have some fun here and discuss some really cool topics! If you ever have something in mind that you’d like to know more about and you think it’s relevant to the blog, let me know. Consider me your funky, philosophic friend who takes shower thoughts a bit too seriously. As an added bonus: if you are a premium paying subscriber, you have the ability to send me a personal email or note about specific research that you’re interested in, and I’ll work with you to explore that topic (assuming it’s within my realm of ability).

Please note: I have a substack as well that I update simultaneously. You may (as others have in the past) find that to be a more convenient way to consume content. For now I have both, but I may reevaluate down the line. I will update you if anything changes.