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Hello,

New articles:

Teenage brains aren’t undeveloped, they’re just doing something else

Full article at bottom of email

There’s a trope we often see about the brains of young people. The idea that the teenage brain is undeveloped, or that the brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25. Something along these lines. It’s annoying, doesn’t make a lot of sense, and encourages a view of the brain that doesn’t really tell us anything helpful about the brain or the behaviour of young people.

The trouble with repressed memories

The notion of repressed memories gets a lot of attention, which has done more harm than good. Memory is a mercurial thing, but by examining it we learn that the kind of memory doesn’t matter. It’s the emotion that’s the key.

Accidental talent

The start of an article on motivation, goals, habits and the elusive talent. So far, we’re looking at the idea that we over-value talent.

The value of the details of trauma

There’s a division in therapeutic circles—should we focus on the details or trauma or not?

Weber’s ‘charismatic leader’ is misleading

Our notion of a ‘charismatic leader’ can be traced back at least to Weber. But it’s a misleading title.

Links worth checking out:

Physical confinement and freedom of imagination: critical thinking in the time of COVID-19

Ryan Singer on Christopher Alexander: a primer on a way of looking at the world that will change how you see it.

Christopher Alexander on Christopher Alexander: more incredible thinking by the architect-philosopher himself.

Notes:

Site now roughly supports those who turn Javascript off. It’s not the most visually pleasing, but at least all the content is there in a sensible way. It’s also thin as for everyone - no more images anywhere, with pretty substantial visual restyling to accommodate. Feedback welcome.

Also, all article links now open in a new tab. It’s better for reading, but also apparently fixes a security vulnerability.

This week’s article selection: Teenage brains aren’t undeveloped, they’re just doing something else

You’re reading this on the site, so you can just go to the article.

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You can find links to all my previous emails to you here.

That’s all from me! Enjoy.

Warm regards,

Dorian