When experiencing the divine turned sour, my best comfort was absurdity — In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt draws a bright line between awe at nature, psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, and man’s experience (whether religious or secular) of the divine. Something about the vastness and beauty of nature makes the self feel small and insignificant, and anything that shrinks the self…

What a fan-made video game hack taught me about how I tanked my YouTube company — Author’s Note: I sold my ownership stake and resigned my position as CEO of Team Four Star in early 2019. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the views and opinions of T.F.S. Entertainment LLC or any of its current owners or employees. My…

And how submerging my body in near-freezing water taught me to dance. — When I tell people that I own an ice bath — a tub with a cooling element capable of keeping water at near-freezing temperatures even in the Phoenix, Arizona summer — and that I take the equivalent of a polar bear plunge several times a week, they usually ask me…

Finding the right words for Fatherhood — When I was very small, my father sometimes told me: I still love you even when you are bad. This was his habit after scolding me — although it’s possible he said it only once and it made such an impact that I remember it happening multiple times. Memory is…

Why we must give the dead their due… ESPECIALLY when “there’s nothing you could have done.” — Why do we obsess over the deaths of loved ones, even (or perhaps especially) when we were powerless to prevent their deaths? On the face of it, grief seems to be a rather useless emotion. Wouldn’t it be easier and more productive — not to mention more pleasant — if…

A Freudian Tale of How I Symbolically Killed My Father By Supplanting Him as De Facto Patriarch — It’s easy to resent someone — a parent, a teacher, a boss — for not leading the way you want. It’s a lot harder to take the lead yourself. But the rewards are greater. I don’t remember a time when my father and I weren’t fighting. When I talk to…