The hottest Human behavior Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Literature Topics

Absolute vs Relative

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 18 Jan 22
🕹 Technology Engineering Measurements Standards Software Human behavior
  1. People often think in relative terms rather than absolute ones. For example, you might feel cold or warm based on how you compare the temperature to what you're used to.
  2. When measuring success or progress, it's easy to lower your standards without realizing it. If everyone around you is doing less, you might think you're doing fine, but that can lead to problems.
  3. Not everything can or should be measured absolutely. It’s important to stay aware and not become complacent, like the frog that doesn’t notice the water getting hotter.

Bad ending ruined it all 😤 — Peak-end rule

10x your mind • 39 implied HN points • 28 Jul 22
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Happiness Self-care Physical health Human behavior
  1. The peak-end rule affects how we remember experiences, focusing on extreme moments and endings rather than duration.
  2. We tend to prioritize memories over current experiences, leading to flawed perceptions of happiness and decision-making based on past events.
  3. To be happier, focus on active leisure, spending time with loved ones, being present in the moment, and maximizing activities that bring joy while minimizing those that don't.

illusory expertise

Midnight Musings • 39 implied HN points • 05 Dec 22
📖 Philosophy Self-reflection Knowledge Confidence Human behavior Cognitive Biases
  1. People often think they know more than they really do, which is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. This means we can be really confident but also very clueless at the same time.
  2. It's common to focus on sharing our opinions rather than listening to others. This can lead to misunderstandings and make it harder to work together and empathize with different viewpoints.
  3. Knowledge comes in two types: explicit (things you can easily write down) and tacit (things learned through experience). True understanding requires experience, not just knowing facts.

People don't want to think more than they have to

UX Psychology • 39 implied HN points • 04 Mar 22
🔬 Science Psychology User Experience Decision-making Human behavior
  1. People prefer to take the path of least resistance and avoid thinking too much, unless necessary.
  2. The principle of least effort influences decision-making and problem-solving by favoring easier, quicker Type 1 thinking over more effortful Type 2 thinking.
  3. In UX design, creating seamless and effortless experiences that align with users' preferences for Type 1 thinking can enhance user satisfaction and engagement.

Curing Cancer for Social Networks: Solving the "Signal-to-Noise Ratio" Problem

Pacheco’s Substack • 10 HN points • 23 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Social Networks Information Flow User Interfaces Human behavior Trust
  1. Understanding the importance of maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio in social networks.
  2. Considering the limitations of human social networks, such as Dunbar's Number and information velocity.
  3. Exploring the potential for a new social network model that prioritizes individual sovereignty, limits global influence, and facilitates meaningful connections.
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Baby Amnesia

DruGroup • 59 implied HN points • 19 Oct 21
😂 Humor Parenting Childbirth Life lessons Human behavior Comedy
  1. Baby amnesia is the idea that parents forget the hard parts of having a baby so they are willing to have more. This helps keep the human race growing.
  2. Many women go through painful and physically tough experiences during pregnancy and childbirth, yet they often choose to have more children. This shows how powerful baby amnesia can be.
  3. After giving birth, the feelings of joy and relief can make parents forget all the difficulties they just faced, highlighting the amazing but challenging journey of bringing new life into the world.

Sucker Games

Tolu’s Newsletter • 4 HN points • 09 Apr 24
🎭️ Culture Social Issues Psychology Human behavior Entertainment Philosophy
  1. Sucker games are situations where people get stuck in cycles of retaliation or poor choices that hurt everyone involved. They can be found in various areas like relationships, work, and even businesses.
  2. One way to avoid falling into sucker games is to think carefully before acting, especially when facing risky situations at work or in personal life. Recognizing patterns from others' failures can help you make better decisions.
  3. If you find yourself already in a sucker game, it's important to realize it and change course. Stopping the cycle often requires humility and letting go of your ego to avoid further harm.

Understanding (and) psychology

Apperceptive (moved to buttondown) • 8 implied HN points • 09 Aug 23
🔬 Science Psychology Machine Learning Cognition General Intelligence Human behavior
  1. Understanding what you're measuring is crucial in machine learning and can have implications on race issues.
  2. Machine learning involves supervised learning, which essentially teaches models to predict human responses, making it a form of human behavioral measurement at a large scale.
  3. Psychological experimentation in measuring human behavior and cognition is complex and requires meticulous control and understanding, which is often underestimated in various fields.

#35: Patterning, herding, programming

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 39 implied HN points • 01 Jul 20
📖 Philosophy Uncertainty Risk Innovation Human behavior Collective action
  1. People struggle to see uncertainty because they rely on patterns from the past to predict the future. This can lead to a false sense of security when the future is actually unpredictable.
  2. We tend to follow the crowd and adopt the beliefs of those around us. If everyone thinks the future will be fine, we may ignore our own doubts.
  3. Our daily lives teach us to think about risk rather than true uncertainty. This makes it hard for us to prepare for unexpected changes, limiting our ability to innovate and adapt.

The wild history of MDMA: 5 Questions for author Rachel Nuwer

The Microdose • 1 HN point • 17 Jul 23
🔬 Science History Research Therapy Human behavior
  1. The history of MDMA has surprising connections and was discovered by accident in a pharmaceutical context.
  2. The first person to try MDMA remains unclear, showing the stigma surrounding the drug in underground communities.
  3. Controversies and ethical dilemmas surrounding MDMA, like with drug dealers and researchers, highlight the complexities of its use despite its reputation for inducing love and empathy.

Economic Activity in Context

In My Tribe • 1 HN point • 05 Mar 24
💼 Business Economic Theory Human behavior Market Dynamics Economic History
  1. Human interdependence is a key aspect of economic activity, involving psychology, sociology, and anthropology in addition to traditional economic theory.
  2. Specialization and trade, unique to humans, play a vital role in economic activity evolution, with increasing complexity observed over time.
  3. In human interactions, balancing individual, group, and societal level incentives presents challenges, with markets often being efficient at the societal level.

Error Correction

Splattern • 0 implied HN points • 08 Jul 21
📖 Philosophy Epistemology Cognition Human behavior Self-awareness Learning Theory
  1. The Alexander Technique helps improve body awareness and sensitivity. This means becoming more in tune with how your body actually moves versus how you think it moves.
  2. Our understanding can be limited by our habits and experiences. Sometimes, a new perspective or outside influence can help us see things differently.
  3. Often, people don't act incorrectly on purpose. We can misjudge our actions because we don't have the right information or awareness about what we are doing.

Lies We Tell in Leadership, Part 3: Polite Fictions

Adventures in Leadership Land • 0 implied HN points • 23 Jun 23
🎭️ Culture Leadership Workplace dynamics Social Interactions Human behavior Relationships
  1. Polite fictions are lies we tell each other to maintain gaps between ideals and behaviors.
  2. Organizations often create polite fictions to mask dysfunctional behaviors and maintain social cohesion.
  3. Maintaining polite fictions in leadership can involve pretending to follow all rules, treating everyone fairly, and suppressing personal influences in the workplace.

Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011)

RUINS • 0 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Film Human behavior Relationships Society Psychology
  1. In the film Carnage, the story revolves around the human quest for justice and the concept of blame.
  2. The movie portrays how people often struggle to assign blame in a quest for justice, especially in the face of terrible events.
  3. Carnage highlights dysfunctional relationships among adults while children show the capacity for reconciliation, reflecting on the breakdown of human relations in modern culture.

The French Revolution!

The False Consensus Effect • 0 implied HN points • 13 Nov 20
💾 History French cuisine Social Psychology Human behavior
  1. The French Revolution significantly impacted the restructuring of the French nation-state, outlawing centuries-old feudal ties and leading to the emergence of a new monarch
  2. Fear of mortal retribution and group paranoia fueled the extreme violence and mass murder during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution
  3. The Revolution highlights a loss of wisdom in modern society, emphasizing the importance of love, art, and beauty in leading fulfilling lives

Shaming with and without naming

world spirit sock stack • 0 implied HN points • 23 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Morality Values Social norms Human behavior
  1. Shaming can lead to positive utilitarian outcomes in two ways: by instilling fear to avoid wrongdoing and by internalizing values to reduce such behaviors.
  2. Naming the person being shamed can lead to more fear-based avoidance, while not naming them might result in more internalization of values.
  3. Choosing whether to name the person in shaming efforts can impact the outcomes by influencing how individuals align with social norms and values.

Why R tends towards 1

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 12 Aug 20
🏥 Health & Wellness Epidemiology Human behavior Public Health Pandemics Immunity
  1. People's behavior plays a significant role in determining how a pandemic like Covid-19 progresses, even more than epidemiological models predict.
  2. Understanding the concept of R0, the basic reproduction number, helps in identifying peak infection points and herd immunity thresholds.
  3. Human behavior can cause fluctuations in the effective reproduction rate of a virus, ultimately leading to an equilibrium point where the virus becomes stable and endemic.

cáo tật thị chúng

Thái | Hacker | Kỹ sư tin tặc • 0 implied HN points • 14 Jan 09
📖 Philosophy Human behavior Beliefs Self-awareness
  1. Sometimes we may act cruel to feel superior to others, but this behavior might just happen naturally without control.
  2. We tend to blindly believe authority figures without questioning, only to realize later that they can be wrong too.
  3. At times, we may go along with things we dislike out of fear of rejection or to avoid making others upset, but in the end, it just makes us unhappy.

The Existential Challenge for Search Engines

The Digital Anthropologist • 0 implied HN points • 25 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Search Engines Human behavior Generative AI SEO
  1. Search engines face challenges similar to newspapers did with increasing ads and advertorial content, blurring lines between sponsored and genuine content.
  2. Consumers are now more aware of SEO tactics and the dominance of ads on search engines, leading them to seek valuable results on second or third pages.
  3. There's a shift in how people want and expect to search, leaning towards in-app search features and a desire for context-driven results over mere links.

Institutional code and human behavior (2)

Space chimp life • 0 implied HN points • 20 Apr 24
🎭️ Culture Human behavior Mythology Narrative
  1. Processes are a collection of actions that help achieve a goal. They can vary depending on how you define them, like swimming or walking.
  2. Stories and reenactments can shape behavior by creating shared understandings of roles. They convey lessons and expectations in a way that can influence people without direct language.
  3. Shame and rituals, like dance or religion, can enforce social codes and behaviors. They help society manage roles and relationships, guiding how people interact with each other.

Institutional code and human behavior (1)

Space chimp life • 0 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Human behavior Institutions Society Language Culture
  1. Human behavior is deeply influenced by social institutions, such as language, art, and religion. These institutions shape how we connect and operate in society.
  2. Every institution has a kind of 'code' that guides its functions and roles, similar to how computer programs run on code. This code helps define what members can do and how they interact.
  3. Foundational roles in early institutions likely included distinctions based on sexual and social dynamics, shaping how humans formed relationships and organized themselves.

Institutional code and human behavior (1)

Space chimp life • 0 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Human behavior Institutions Language Evolution Society
  1. Our human nature is deeply intertwined with institutions, which shape many of our social behaviors like language, art, and economy. Understanding these institutions can help us see how they influence our lives.
  2. Institutions need certain features to operate effectively, like defining roles for members and processes for decision-making. These codes help govern interactions and resource management within a group.
  3. A big part of how we relate to each other in institutions comes from our basic human roles, including sexual roles. These roles may have been some of the first defined in ancient societies, influencing how we build social structures today.

Institutions as Forms of Life

Space chimp life • 0 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy AI Ethics Human behavior Systems Thinking Environmental Concerns
  1. Institutions are not just groups of people; their behavior is shaped by their structures and incentives. This means they can act in ways that don't always reflect what individuals want, like ignoring climate change.
  2. An institution can exist without humans entirely; in the future, AI might take over all roles in institutions without changing their function. This shows that institutions operate like living things, independent of their human creators.
  3. To improve institutions, we need to help them adjust their decisions based on long-term effects instead of short-term profits. Providing better communication and information from people can help institutions make smarter choices.

Don’t try to optimise life decisions

Tecnica • 0 implied HN points • 28 Jul 24
📖 Philosophy Decision-making Existentialism Rationality Chaos Theory Human behavior
  1. Life decisions can be unpredictable, and overthinking them isn't always helpful. Sometimes, a seemingly small choice can lead to big changes.
  2. We often need to balance enjoying the present and thinking about the future when making decisions. It's a choice between being happy now or planning for what's ahead.
  3. Accept that life is a chaotic system, and not every decision will turn out the way you expect. It's okay to embrace the uncertainty instead of trying to control everything.

AI and another confrontation

Splattern • 0 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🎭️ Culture Identity AI Impact Human behavior
  1. AI is changing how we think about intelligence. As machines get smarter, the importance of human intelligence might decrease.
  2. Skills like love and relationship-building may become more valuable than just being smart. It's nice to focus on connecting with others rather than always trying to show off our intelligence.
  3. Facing confrontations can lead to growth. Engaging with others, even in tense situations, can be more rewarding than avoiding them.