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Sunday Letters
Welcome to the Sunday Letters archive. Here you'll find all editions of the newsletter from 2015. Sunday Letters is a conversation I'm having with myself. It attempts to address the psychology and philosophy of living the good life in the face of rapid technological change. It is the pursuit of an answer to a question. Thanks for being here.
How To Turn Off A Humming Fridge
We seldom hear it and hardly know it was there at all until it stops. But sometimes we need help to flip the switch. This time twelve months ago, I decided I’d seek out a therapist. Not because I felt I was in turmoil, that I was anxious or depressed or otherwise at odds with […]
Cyclical Time
Songs serve as a cosmic map for life experience. One song earlier today triggered 1989, 14 years old, down the lane on St. Philomena’s Road beside our school. The La’s were playing There She Goes in my head and I was smokin’ a Carroll’s No.1 with two classmates, painting my name in Tipex on the wall. I […]
The Pursuit of Happiness Part 3: Nine Factors That Impact Your Happiness
Welcome to part three of our exploration into the nature of happiness. In this article, we turn our attention to the psychology of happiness and findings by professor Peter Warr at the University of Sheffield. In his 2019 book of the same name, Warr draws on thousands of happiness and wellbeing studies to suggest nine primary environmental factors that impact your happiness. As we will see, many parallels can be drawn from the forthcoming with, for example…
The Pursuit of Happiness Part 2: The Focusing Illusion
The Focusing Illusion bias and how it impacts our judgement of perceived life happiness and wellbeing. In part two of our continued exploration into the nature and substance of happiness, we explore what cognitive psychologist Daniel Kahneman called The Focusing Illusion. The Focusing Illusion suggests that these things we think and believe are so important, […]
The Pursuit of Happiness Part 1
An exploration into the phenomenon of happiness the dichotomous nature of the human condition. Over the next few weeks on Sunday Letters, we will explore the human pursuit of happiness, what it means, and whether or not we can indeed finally achieve it. We will examine its diametrical opposite, unhappiness, and try to understand how […]
Scepticism: An Antidote To The Dangers of Groupthink
Is scepticism a valued attribute of thinking in today’s society? Are sceptics valued or reviled? It’s certainly valuable to have healthy dose of scepticism, but maybe those social groups to which we belong would prefer if we’d get in line and be quiet. Maybe we ostracise ourselves and bring on unwanted attention when we question […]