The 8 reasons why you’re lonely. It’s men’s fault, women’s fault, biology’s fault, and Hollywood’s fault. Plus, there IS hope. — One time, my friend had 6 girls crying on her bedroom floor. What happened? Well, each of these 6 girls had a boyfriend. He was sweet, sensitive, fun, charming, handsome — in other words, he was the perfect man. On Valentine’s Day, they found out that their 6 wonderful boyfriends…

Lessons from Karl Marx, Hernan Cortez, Michael Westen, Daniel Negreanu, and taxicab drivers in Cancún. — If you go to Cancún, Mexico, your taxi driver might rip you off. Imagine: you land, you get your bags from the carousel, and you’re exhausted. You’ve never been to Mexico before and you don’t speak a lick of Spanish. You get in a cab and tell the driver to…

And what to do about it. Plus, why you, your friends, your relatives, and football coaches make the same mistakes over and over again. — In 2009, Josh McDaniels was hired as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. Then, he alienated the locker room, pissed off the team’s best players, and traded away starting quarterback Jay Cutler. The Broncos fired him in the middle of his second season. McDaniels is great at offensive football…

I go after the sacred cow of liberal Western society. Plus, Mexican food, healthy cigarettes, and why academia is like Enron. — Science is overrated. Every time you eat tacos, you can see the proof. You’re probably super confused right now, so let me explain. I started writing this article in Parque Chapultepec in Mexico City, which is kind of like their version of Central Park. …

The way ideas change the world. Plus, elephants crossing the Mississippi, unsinkable ships, and uncrashable housing markets. — What are people willing to die for? 2 things. The first is family. You wouldn’t give your life for a random stranger on the street. But you might for your son, or daughter, or wife, or husband, or mom. The second is ideas. People will fight wars and kill and…

2 reasons why the left gets welfare wrong, one of them cynical. Plus, how to get welfare right. — Before 1968, a lot of states had “man in the house” rules. They were super controversial. They basically said that no family could get welfare if there was an able-bodied adult male living with them. Here’s the idea behind that law: men would go to work instead of sitting on…

Fear is the #1 thing holding you back in life. It’ll stop you from pursuing your dreams — but only if you let it. Here’s how you can beat it. — Let’s fast forward into the future. You’re on your deathbed. You’re old and wrinkly and you’re dying of cancer. In 24 hours, you’ll be in a coffin, and the hospice staff will be cleaning your room for the next dying old geezer. You start reflecting on your life. …

Having free will would make you MORE predictable, not less. So free will and determinism are compatible. Plus, pizza, destroying Mercury, and eating blueberry pie. — Note to my long-term readers: I wanted to take the week off from Medium posting this week, so instead of writing something from scratch I pulled up something I wrote a while ago and then didn’t do anything with. …

How social sciences aren’t like natural sciences. Plus, lessons from Daniel Kahneman, Machiavelli, Warren Buffett, and Isaac Asimov. — Imagine: civilization is about to collapse. You’re the only one who knows. What do you do? That’s the plot of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. The social scientist Hari Seldon comes up with a bunch of mathematical models that predict future history. …