Derek Sivers on Brain Rules for Aging Well by John Medina ISBN:0996032673 - Current research on brain aging, and how to slow or reverse its effects. Be very social. Read 3+ hours per week. Intensely learn something new, especially a new language. Take dance lessons. Practice gratitude and mindfulness. Flood your mind with nostalgic memories. (more)

"The 4 Levels of Non-Reactivity:" Whether you’re studying Stoicism, Buddhist Meditation, Mindfulness, or simply practicing How to Not Give a Fuck, the underlying principle remains the same – How to become less reactive and more emotionally stable. How to cultivate a healthy indifference. Note that this is different than avoidance.... The goal here is NOT to become an emotionless robot. We don’t want you to stop reacting to things and allow everything to happen, that’s not the aim. Instead, the goal of these practices is to be aware of and in control of your reactions. To be as Steven Covey says, “Response-able” or “able to control our responses”. (2018-11-27) The 4 Levels Of Non-reactivity (more)

The 4 Levels of Non-Reactivity. Whether you’re studying Stoicism, Buddhist Meditation, Mindfulness, or simply practicing How to Not Give a Fuck, the underlying principle remains the same – How to become less reactive and more emotionally stable. How to cultivate a healthy indifference. (more)

People who express high negative affectivity view themselves and a variety of aspects of the world around them in generally negative terms. Negative affectivity is strongly related to life satisfaction. Individuals high in negative affect will exhibit, on average, higher levels of distress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_affectivity cf Dispositional affect (more)

Dispositional affect, similar to mood, is a personality trait or overall tendency to respond to situations in stable, predictable ways. This trait is expressed by the tendency to see things in a positive or negative way. People with high positive affectivity tend to perceive things through "pink lens" ("rose-colored glasses") while people with high negative affectivity tend to perceive things through "black lens". The level of dispositional affect affects the sensations and behavior immediately and most of the time in unconscious ways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispositional_affect (more)

Core self-evaluations (CSE) represent a stable personality trait which encompasses an individual's subconscious, fundamental evaluations about themselves, their own abilities and their own control. People who have high core self-evaluations will think positively of themselves and be confident in their own abilities. Conversely, people with low core self-evaluations will have a negative appraisal of themselves and will lack confidence. The concept of core self-evaluations was first examined by Judge, Locke, and Durham (1997) and involves four personality dimensions: locus of control, neuroticism, generalized self-efficacy, and self-esteem. The trait developed as a dispositional predictor of job satisfaction, but has expanded to predict a variety of other outcomes. Core self-evaluations are particularly important because they represent a personality trait that will remain consistent over time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_self-evaluations (more)

Neuroticism or negativity is a personality trait associated with negative emotions. It is one of the Big Five traits. People high in neuroticism experience negative emotions like fear, anger, shame, envy, or depression more often and more intensely than those who score low on neuroticism.[1] Highly neurotic people have more trouble coping with stressful events, are more likely to insult or lash out at others, and are more likely to interpret ordinary situations (like minor frustrations) as hopelessly difficult. Neuroticism is closely-related to mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.[2][3][4] Individuals who score low in neuroticism tend to be more emotionally stable and less reactive to stress. They tend to be calm, even-tempered, and less likely to feel tense or rattled. Although they are low in negative emotion, they are not necessarily high in positive emotions, which are more commonly associated with extraversion and agreeableness.[5] Neurotic extroverts, for example, would experience high levels of both positive and negative emotional states, a kind of "emotional roller coaster". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroticism (more)

Category Pirates: Stop Teaching, Start Transforming: Meet The AI That Turns Your Ideas Into Life Breakthroughs. Fast. Most people think they have a knowledge problem. (more)

the whacking of the SaaS industry by AI

Joe Procopio: Here’s How the Mass Layoffs In Tech Will End, and How To Thrive In the Aftermath. Why the race to “streamline” will backfire as the unintended consequences (side-effects) pile up. (more)

Jason Lemkin: Beyond the SaaSpocalypse: The Winners and Losers of 2026 (So Far). The SaaSpocalpyse is over. But it's not that simple. There are winners, losers, and the ones that have just barely bounced back. (more)

The Art of Non-Reactive Living in Stressful Times. What if we could change our relationship with stress? Instead of being pulled into a reactive spiral, we can learn to pause, observe, and choose our response with intention. This is the essence of non-reactive living. (more)

What is Third Wave Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? The “first wave” of behavioral therapies were characterized by behaviorism (i.e., operant conditioning, classical conditioning). Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck pioneered the “second wave” of behavioral therapies with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which integrated a person’s thoughts and beliefs in understanding and changing behavior and emotional experiences such as depression. (more)

Embolden Psychology: The psychology of negative people. What Causes Negativity? (more)

Melli OBrien: How to become non-reactive. The science behind reactivity (more)

How a Behavioral Therapist Can Adapt DBT Using Chain Analysis to Disrupt Emotional Avoidance. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) that helps individuals build skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness (more)

Lenny Rachitsky with Max Schoening (Head of Product, Notion): why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era. Max Schoening is head of product at Notion, where he’s been especially effective at getting designers and PMs to ship code, prototype in the terminal, and launch extremely successful AI products. He was previously a PM at Google, ran design at Heroku, was VP of Design (and a part-time engineer) at GitHub, and is a two-time founder.* (more)

The GoodTherapy Blog on Negativity. Therapeutic techniques such as journaling and meditation may be of benefit to individuals who experience negativity, as written or mental consideration of one’s emotions may facilitate an understanding of what lies behind those emotions. (more)

Peter Yang: Is Software Dead, or Just Not for Humans Anymore? When I left my job, I thought I’d vibe code a SaaS that made money from users while I slept. Instead, I built open source tools like No AI Slop and Human Review for agents (more)

Sasha Chapin Review: Meditation from Cold Start to Complete Mastery. For some reason, sometimes people want to know what I’m reading. Usually, the answer is “five things at once” (more)