About six months ago, I hit a quiet kind of frustration. Nothing was dramatically wrong. I was functioning. Working. Planning. Dreaming. But I felt stuck in this loop of “I’ll start tomorrow.” Tomorrow I’d wake up earlier. Tomorrow I’d read more. Tomorrow I’d get disciplined. Tomorrow never came. That’s when I picked up Atomic Habits by James Clear. I wasn’t looking for motivation. I was looking for a system. Something practical. Something realistic. Something that didn’t require becoming a c...

About six months ago, I hit a quiet kind of frustration. Nothing was dramatically wrong. I was functioning. Working. Planning. Dreaming. But I felt stuck in this loop of “I’ll start tomorrow.” Tomorrow I’d wake up earlier. Tomorrow I’d read more. Tomorrow I’d get disciplined. Tomorrow never came. That’s when I picked up Atomic Habits by James Clear. I wasn’t looking for motivation. I was looking for a system. Something practical. Something realistic. Something that didn’t require becoming a c...

The same technology promising to make us smarter is preventing the one thing our brains need to actually think. For most of the 20th century, humanity got demonstrably smarter. In a phenomenon known as the “Flynn Effect,” average IQ scores climbed three to five points a decade across dozens of countries, progress fueled by better nutrition, healthcare, and education. Then, starting with people born after the mid-1970s, it shifted. By the late 1990s, decades of rising IQ scores began to level ...

The same technology promising to make us smarter is preventing the one thing our brains need to actually think. For most of the 20th century, humanity got demonstrably smarter. In a phenomenon known as the “Flynn Effect,” average IQ scores climbed three to five points a decade across dozens of countries, progress fueled by better nutrition, healthcare, and education. Then, starting with people born after the mid-1970s, it shifted. By the late 1990s, decades of rising IQ scores began to level ...

When I was in college, the first boy I dated was Iranian. He was devoutly Muslim, in that he did not eat pork nor drink alcohol. Yet he seemed perfectly willing to have premarital sex, something I resisted firmly due to my own Catholic upbringing. He also had no issue with shisha, or hookah, as others call it. I remember this causing me a great deal of confusion. If one were to lead a purely virtuous life, what made one vice more acceptable to one religion than another? Because of him, I deve...

When I was in college, the first boy I dated was Iranian. He was devoutly Muslim, in that he did not eat pork nor drink alcohol. Yet he seemed perfectly willing to have premarital sex, something I resisted firmly due to my own Catholic upbringing. He also had no issue with shisha, or hookah, as others call it. I remember this causing me a great deal of confusion. If one were to lead a purely virtuous life, what made one vice more acceptable to one religion than another? Because of him, I deve...

I’ve spent more than two decades sitting across from people in small rooms with bad coffee and uncomfortable chairs. Some were innocent. Some were not. Many were simply afraid. Over time, I learned something important: deception rarely announces itself with dramatic tells. It hides in everyday habits — the kind we all brush off as personality quirks. In interrogation work, we don’t look for “liars.” We look for changes, inconsistencies, and patterns. The same skills that help in an interview ...

I’ve spent more than two decades sitting across from people in small rooms with bad coffee and uncomfortable chairs. Some were innocent. Some were not. Many were simply afraid. Over time, I learned something important: deception rarely announces itself with dramatic tells. It hides in everyday habits — the kind we all brush off as personality quirks. In interrogation work, we don’t look for “liars.” We look for changes, inconsistencies, and patterns. The same skills that help in an interview ...