- The sign of an insecure know-it-all: in small groups, they lecture, rather than converse. A slight tension is in the air.
- Social climbers are dismissive and harsh towards those beneath them; subservient and fake to those above them.
- To predict someone’s future behavior, observe their past actions.
- The human mind is a rationalizer - more lawyer than scientist.
- With trust, put-downs indicate love and affection between men; without trust, the opposite.
- If there's a difference between what someone says and what they do, believe what they do.
- No reaction is as seductive as indignation.
- We are two minds: the experiencing self and the remembering self.
- Use negative visualization as a hack against insatiability.
- Many male groups only talk while doing other things.
- People vote with their feet.
- Humans like stress, when controlled.
- Familiarity breeds un-appreciation.
- Genes play an under-appreciated role.
- Human's unique trait: our ability to tell each other stories.
- There are more differences within groups than between groups.
- Having everything you want, all the time - sex, food, affection, control - leads to coddling and laziness. Enjoy it, but limit it. Relish some struggle.
- Watch body language for truth.
- If a deep hope matches a firm conclusion, odds of delusion are 10x.
- Those who are too nice, too appeasing, violate a rule of healthy relations: equality, and mutual skin in the game.
- The passive aggressive are sensitive souls, dying to stand up for themselves.
- Reasonable people can disagree.
- Everyone is selfish - to some, selfish acts are pro-social and natural. These are the “good people."
- You hate in others what you hate - and notice - in yourself.
- Confirmation bias: an intellectual's highway to overconfidence and self-deception.
- Most advice and opinions are projections.