Self-Improvement

Become your best self.

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Apr 19 20175 minutes
How Poverty Changes the Brain
You saw the pictures in science class—a profile view of the human brain, sectioned by function. The piece at the very front, right behind where a forehead would be if the brain were actually in someone’s head, is the pre-frontal cortex. It handles pr
Apr 19 20173 minutes
How Office Culture Can Crush Women’s Ambitions
Women often report less interest in senior roles. But that may be because of how they're treated, not a lack of motivation.
Apr 27 201712 minutes
Why Doesn’t Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings?: Literature’s evolution has reflected and spurred the growing complexity of society.
Reading medieval literature, it’s hard not to be impressed with how much the characters get done—as when we read about King Harold doing battle in one of the Sagas of the Icelanders, written in about 1230. The first sentence bristles with purposeful
Apr 16 20173 minutes
'When I Was Your Age' And Other Pitfalls Of Talking To Teens About Stress
Helping teenagers develop cognitive empathy, the ability to understand another person's perspective, can allow them to cope with stress better. But whether they accept help can be all in the phrasing.
Apr 20 201715 minutes
Why Poverty Is Like a Disease: Emerging science is putting the lie to American meritocracy.
On paper alone you would never guess that I grew up poor and hungry. My most recent annual salary was over $700,000. I am a Truman National Security Fellow and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. My publisher has just released my lates
Apr 25 20173 minutes
The Evolutionary History Of Your Incredibly Awkward Feelings
Pixabay Why do we feel awkward? Embarrassed? Guilty? Read on. The following is an excerpt from AWKWARD: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome. Charles Darwin provided some of the early scientific insights about why humans w
May 3 20174 minutes
Why Americans Smile So Much
On Reddit forums that ask “What’s a dead giveaway that someone is American?” one trait comes up over and over again: big, toothy grins. Here’s how one Reddit user in Finland put it: When a stranger on the street smiles at you: a. you assume he is dru
Apr 11 20173 minutes
Can a Difficult Childhood Enhance Cognition?
Poverty tends to dampen test scores, but new research suggests people with hard upbringings can sometimes outperform their more-privileged peers.
Apr 20 201710 minutes
How Nostalgia Made America Great Again: When the present looks bleak, we reach for a rose-tinted past.
Make America great again. Clearly the message resonated. In 2016, prior to the presidential election, the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan group, published its annual American Values Survey. It revealed 51 percent of the population f
May 2 20177 minutes
When Memories Are True Even When They’re Not
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout discusses Louise Glück’s poem “Nostos” and the powerful way literature can harbor recollection.
Apr 13 20174 minutes
A New Approach To Helping Men Of Color Heal After A Violent Incident
To figure out the best ways to help young black and Latino men heal, a nonprofit will train young men in New York City to conduct interviews with other young men of color.
Mar 31 201720 minutes
A New Trauma Therapy for Treating the 'Untreatable'
A group of psychologists say body-oriented therapies can heal the deepest layers of the brain—and they're hoping neuroscience will prove them right.

Self-Improvement Scribd Selects

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Form Healthy Habits

Usually, our efforts to form new habits or break old ones only last a few days. These books will give you practical steps to follow to change your habits and the willpower to actually succeed.

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Alex K., Scribd Editor

From the Editors

Unconventional, pragmatic advice…

The book flies in the face of so much conventional self-help wisdom that it’s hard not to label the book as anti-self-help. And yet, that label undermines how pragmatic the book actually is. In the overcrowded, oversaturated, over-clichéd self-help genre, this is is a book well worth whatever f*cks you can muster.