Relationships
Attachment, Conflict and Connection
Seven lessons on attachment, recurring disagreements, repair and desire, with room for individual circumstances.
7 lessons · Available in the app
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Self-Respect and the Evidence
Seven days on the advice industry's central claim — that romantic success is downstream of self-respect — and what the research actually says about which way that arrow runs.
Inside this path
A little more understanding.
An entire industry teaches that if you fix the person, the dating fixes itself. Mark Manson, Robert Glover and Nathaniel Branden each made a version of that argument, and each is more careful than the culture that grew around them. This path takes the argument seriously and then checks it. The research says self-regard and close relationships move together, in both directions, by small amounts — which is a quieter finding than the genre sells and a more usable one. Seven days on neediness, performance, the unstated bargains people make, and what self-esteem turned out to be when somebody finally measured it. Including an honest account of which claims here are solid and which are practitioner confidence in a hardback.
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Where the path begins · Lesson 01
The Direction of the Arrow
Where the modern language of dating advice came from, what its central claim actually is, and what happened when somebody measured it.
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See the 7-lesson outline
The Direction of the Arrow
Where the modern language of dating advice came from, what its central claim actually is, and what happened when somebody measured it.
What Neediness Actually Costs
The one thing every writer in this space agrees is the problem, what it looks like when psychologists measure it, and why the industry's fix makes it worse.
The Performance and the Person
The alternative to technique, the popular argument for it that turns out not to hold, and the better reason it's still the right move.
The Contract Nobody Signed
Glover's clinical pattern, what it actually costs, what the research base for it honestly is, and the nearest thing to it that has been measured.
Letting People Be Disappointed
What the recovery from the pattern actually consists of, why relationships built on a performance have a predictable failure point, and where the pendulum swings too far.
What Self-Esteem Turned Out to Be
Branden's argument, the movement it fed, and the reckoning that followed when the claims were tested.
What Holds and What Doesn't
The week assembled — run through two ordinary cases, then every claim sorted by how much evidence is behind it.
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Another question to follow.
Communication
Introduction to Communication
Seven days on the small moves that decide whether your difficult conversations go well or go badly, for the adult who has never been taught them.
7 lessons · Available in the app
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Finance
Introduction to Financial Independence
Understand what your life costs, how saving changes your options, and how to plan beyond the next payslip.
7 lessons · Available in the app
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