Why cooperation > competition in diverse ecosystems Photo by Hiroko Yoshii on Unsplash How did patriarchy evolve in the social structure of a primarily cooperative species? I began asking myself questions like this after a couple of archaeological experiences in England and Egypt. I realized we must understand — as well as possible…
Tag: evolution
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A Meaningful Series of Events
Our Pathway to Modernity Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash Who We Were We can only speculate about human societies 10,000 years ago, inferring from limited evidence that we transitioned from nomadic to sedentary life. As food storage became reliable, settlements grew. Brain development and cultural sophistication followed. The narrative varies — some…
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Yet Somehow We Got Egypt
The Mystery “Our understanding of early human existence comes from a handful of bone fragments that would fit on this table”. This was the answer to a question I didn’t know I needed. Our tour guide, an archaeology PhD with the personality of Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool, verified what I’ve…
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Here’s Why Money is Scarce
Don’t give me your abundance bs Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash In 1997 I had a job paying ten dollars an hour, and I was the righest guy I knew. I was 25 years old, had an undergraduate degree, and had worked in a part-time government field position for two years. Minimum…
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Reductionism, Individualism, and the Fall of the Human Species
Fellow humans, your shortsightedness is showing One of the downsides to human evolution is that we’re not very good at seeing things from outside our perspective. Simultaneously, we struggle to live in the moment, spending most of our time worrying about the past or the future. We are in our…
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A Codependency Manifesto
What loving yourself really means. We’ve all heard it. To love someone else, you have to love yourself first. I can’t tell you how many times this has been said to me in therapy. I even conducted a lengthy podcast interview series, and nearly every guest said the same thing. …
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Not Taking Things Personally Is the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Tried to Do
But it may be the most rewarding skill we can learn I’ve been ‘in therapy’ for almost two decades. For about one-third of my life, I have sought help from others to heal my emotional wounds. I’m not weird or special. According to SAMHSA, over 50 million Americans received mental health…
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I Wish I Had a Ticket to Ride
A Beatle’s song and a dream of freedom Like many gen-Xers, the Beatles were my introduction to music. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was my first meaningful musical experience and changed my life. The album (yes, my early moments were with my parent’s vinyl) remains one of my top…
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Inventions Other Mother
Playfulness and curiosity in Natural Selection “Necessity is the mother of invention” While we don’t know who first said it, many people have. Surely you have heard this phrase, if not used it. This quote means that urgency induces creativity. When humans need something, we search harder for solutions. It…
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A Stand of Trees Does Not a Forest Make
A system is more than its parts During my dissertation defense, I got into a mild argument with one of my committee members. He was a GIS remote sensing technologist, I was a tree-hugging hippie ecologist. The disagreement centered around how many 30 x 30 meter (this was the early…