On Conspicuous Despair, the Ponzi stage of being alive, and why your grandparents are wrong about you.
Three important steps in my maturation process – Thomas Dullien / Halvar Flake
My father passed recently, and he was twice my age. I am approximately the same age that he was when I was born, and I am now “the old generation” - there’s no one left in the generation above me.
Late Diagnosis, Demographic Shifts, and Narrative Resistance:
A Critical Analysis
Nobody Has a Personality Anymore
My generation is obsessed with treating every trait as a symptom of a disorder: You’re not shy, you’re autistic; you’re not forgetful, you’ve got ADHD, writes Freya India.
Post-exertional malaise (PEM) in ME/CFS
Post-exertional malaise (PEM), the cardinal feature of ME/CFS, is particularly debilitating as it involves the amplification of existing symptoms, alongside the potential appearance of new ones, following minimal exertion. However, the term “exertion” may be misconstrued, by those unfamiliar with ME/CFS, as activities typically considered high intensity by healthy individuals. Consequently, healthy individuals may inappropriately…
The power imbalance between parent and child leaves a trace | Aeon Essays
Nobody quite recovers from being a child: the asymmetry of power between parents and children always leaves a trace
Suburbanasia
The environment younger Millennials and older Gen-Z grew up in withered away their ability to mitigate stress and handle disagreements. Is there any way to fix it?
Learning From Older Adults: An Intergoal Compatibility Account for Successful Happiness Pursuit
Academic Abstract People want to pursue happiness but often fail, a phenomenon known as the paradox of pursuing happiness. The mechanisms underlying this paradox remain elusive. Age differences in happiness—specifically that older adults appear more successful in pursuing happiness (the emotion paradox of aging)—provide valuable insights into effective happiness pursuit. Drawing on this literature, we propose an intergoal compatibility account to interpret both paradoxes through the lens of intergoal interactions, an intuitively critical yet underexplored factor in existing interpretations. This account asserts that greater compatibility (fewer conflicts and greater facilitation) between happiness pursuit and other important personal goals enhances the effectiveness of happiness pursuit, and such compatibility can be enhanced through contextual influences (e.g., age-graded developmental tasks) and strategic self-regulation (e.g., goal adjustments). This account generates testable predictions and practical implications for enhancing happiness pursuit across the lifespan. Public Abstract Why do people often struggle to achieve happiness? And why are older adults happier than younger adults, even though they face more losses in life? While these questions have drawn extensive attention, they remain puzzling. A crucial yet insufficiently explored factor in successful happiness pursuit is intergoal compatibility —the extent to which the pursuit of happiness aligns or conflicts with other important personal goals. For younger adults, the demands of age-related developmental tasks (e.g., educational and career aspirations) often create conflicts with the pursuit of happiness, diminishing its effectiveness. Conversely, in older adults, happiness becomes more prioritized and compatible with other important personal goals, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of pursuing happiness. A lesson we can learn from older adults is to pursue happiness in ways compatible with other important personal goals.
Towards Eldering
by Cash Ahenakew Part of the work of the GTDF collective has been around “growing up”. The term is used with reference to sobering up, to owning up and to showing up differently in the world. Previ…
A quote from 1984
In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
Why older people are happier and what we can learn from them | Psyche Ideas
Around the world, happiness tends to peak later in life. It has more to do with balancing priorities than elderly wisdom
A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and meaning.
Capitalism and Degrowth: An Impossibility Theorem - Monthly Review
A slightly different version of this article was published under the title “Degrow or Die?” in the December/January 2011 issue of the UK journal Red Pepper, for which it was... READ MORE
