The cult of confidence: could positive thinking be making us feel less secure?
The past decade has seen a boom in ‘confidence culture’. But behind all the positive thinking, are more cynical forces are at work?
«Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey argued in a widely shared Harvard Business Review article called “Stop Telling Women They Have impostor Syndrome”,»
More from The Guardian
Bicycle graveyards: why do so many bikes end up underwater?
The long read: Every year, thousands of bikes are tossed into rivers, ponds, lakes and canals. What’s behind this mass drowning?
Uber broke laws, duped police and built secret lobbying operation, leak reveals
124,000 documents expose inner workings behind US tech firm’s rise as a global empire responsible for 19m journeys a day
«As Uber launched across India, Kalanick’s top executive in Asia urged managers to focus on driving growth, even when “fires start to burn”. “Know this is a normal part of Uber’s business,” he said. “Embrace the chaos. It means you’re doing something meaningful.”»
Oliver Burkeman's last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life
After more than a decade of writing life-changing advice, I know when to move on. Here’s what else I learned
Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth
After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on the planet. But its benefits mask enormous dangers to ecology, to health and to culture itself
You May Also Like
Staring at the tsunami
Voltaire, optimism and selective updating
«We are being prevented from accurately assessing risk by elites who are gaming a cognitive glitch to keep business-as-usual on the tracks.»
Life Is Hard. And That’s Good
When the going gets tough, the tough get philosophical.
«The right perspective in which to think about grief is that it is a manifestation of persisting love,”»
Since when is philosophy a branch of the self-help industry?
The discipline today finds itself precariously balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help
«Many people buy books that supply the illusion of thinking»
Is confidence a cult? These sociologists think so.
A new book aims to show why directives to "just be more confident!" are so harmful.
«It takes all the differences and empties them out of their meaning and appears that, say, being pregnant is as significant as being disabled.»
The Art of Negativity
The concept of ‘positive thinking’ is ubiquitous throughout society – from social media to home décor. What then, of adopting an approach grounded in negativity?
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
400k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.