The world seems scarier than it is because what you hear about it has been selected—by your own attention filter or by the media

We like to believe that things happen because someone wanted them to, that individuals have power and agency: otherwise, the world feels unpredictable, confusing, and frightening.

human beings have a strong dramatic instinct toward binary thinking, a basic urge to divide things into two distinct groups, with nothing but an empty gap in between. We love to dichotomize. Good versus bad. Heroes versus villains. My country versus the rest. Dividing the world into two distinct ...

Forming your worldview by relying on the media would be like forming your view about me by looking only at a picture of my foot.

There was a balance. It wasn’t because humans lived in balance with nature. Humans died in balance with nature.

The goal of higher income is not just bigger piles of money. The goal of longer lives is not just extra time. The ultimate goal is to have the freedom to do what we want