Thread by @robkhenderson

Best books I read in 2020

1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear

“If you show up at the gym 5 days in a row—even for 2 minutes—you're casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts”

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings

amzn.to/3nJqB4c

2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

amzn.to/39iSqJP

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents...Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without a believe in a devil.”

Grandstanding

amzn.to/3eWZqP3

"if politics becomes a morality pageant, then the contestants have an incentive to keep problems intact...politics becomes a forum to show off moral qualities...people will be dedicated to activism for its own sake, as a vehicle to preen"

Warriors and Worriers by Joyce Benenson

amzn.to/2NmNxWu

“Across diverse cultures, a man who lives in the house with another man’s children is about 60 times more likely than the biological father to kill those children.”

Meditations on Violence

amzn.to/3en5jny

"In this ritual, members of a group compete for status and show their loyalty by how vicious they can be to an 'outsider.' Pleading, fighting, passivity will be interpreted as proof of 'otherness' and justification to escalate."

Our Kids by Robert Putnam

Children born to unmarried mothers

Upper class in 1977: 5%
Working class in 1977: 22%

Upper class in 2007: 10%
Working class in 2007: 65%

amzn.to/2AUsFDh

The Gulag Archipelago

Soviet authorities purged those who were "too independent, too influential, along with those who were too well-to-do, too intelligent, too noteworthy...Thus the population was shaken up, forced into silence, left without any possible leaders of resistance"

"All organisms are shaped to behave in ways that increase fitness even if that decreases health and happiness...Our emotions benefit our genes far more than they do us."
amzn.to/2ObRVYK

“when a chimpanzee learns an effective way to crack nuts open as a member of one group and then switches to a new group that uses a less effective strategy, it will avoid using the superior nut cracking method just to blend in with the rest of the chimps” amzn.to/3eKu26n

The Evolution of Desire by @ProfDavidBuss

“Roughly 30 percent of men on the Tinder app, which is widely regarded as a short-term mating app, are married.”

amzn.to/2OKxxOA

“Researchers studied polygynous households in more than 50 different cultures..co-wives engage in some of the most intense violence that occurs between women..A woman and her children do better when she is in a strong monogamous relationship with a man” amzn.to/2NmNxWu

“habits form based on frequency, not time. One common question is ‘How long does it take to build a new habit?’ But what people should be asking is ‘How many does it take to form a new habit?’ That is, how many repetitions are required?” amzn.to/3eKu26n

Suicide by @sociologyWV

amzn.to/332blYr

"those who lost jobs were more likely to kill themselves in the subsequent year than those who had not lost jobs...effect was particularly strong for men: those who lost jobs were 2-3 times more likely to have killed themselves"

“The standard way to tell it a drug will be an effective antidepressant is to see if it makes an animal persist in useless efforts. The Porsolt test measures how long a rat swims when dropped in a beaker of water. Rats on Prozac swim longer.” amzn.to/3aH7Bzt

“We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility..adherents have a strong sense of liberation even though they live in an atmosphere of strict adherence..this sense of liberation comes from having escaped an untenable individual existence” amzn.to/39iSqJP

"Enforcing monogamy causes dissatisfaction. Allowing sex with others arouses jealousy...Most cultures have emphasized controlling sexuality to preserve relationships. Now, some are trying to control attachments to preserve sexual opportunities” amzn.to/3pkxcCk

Conquest of Happiness, Bertrand Russell

amzn.to/2xbg5xH

"Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, Alexander envied Hercules, who never existed...get away from envy by avoiding comparisons w/ those you imagine, perhaps falsely, to be more fortunate than yourself"

Life at the Bottom

amzn.to/2Yepte3

"having worked as a doctor in some of the poorest countries...I have little hesitation in saying the mental, cultural, emotional, impoverishment of the Western underclass is the greatest of any large group of people I've encountered"

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

Thread:

https://twitter.com/robkhenderson/status/1309585980005982210?s=20

The WEIRDest People in the World

"getting married cuts a man's chances of committing a crime by half, both for property crimes and for violent crimes...not only did a man's likelihood of committing a crime go up after a divorce...it also increased after his wife passed away"

Codes of the Underworld

"Friends, young men especially, often salute one another by resorting to abusive epithets...the ritual tests the solidity of friendship, for if the target bore a grudge, such lighthearted abuse could not be delivered without causing a reaction"

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