How to make this winter not totally suck, according to psychologistsSigal SamuelVox

Illustration of a sad-looking woman

I really like the evidence-based advice in this article. It shows how the pathway to true happiness is to, in a way, forget about yourself.

Instead of thinking about the myriad negative feelings you want to avoid and the myriad things you can buy or do in service of that, think about a single organising principle that is highly effective at generating positive feelings across the board: Shift your focus outward.

I often feel uneasy about how much advice from self-help gurus encourages people to focus inwards on themselves. Humans naturally crave social interaction and feeling part of a wider purpose, beyond narrow self-interest.

This article offers practical suggestions for how you can find that, to help you feel better through what’s going to be a tough winter.

Why everything might have taken so long

Why did it take humans until 4000BC to invent the wheel? Or 3000BC to begin writing? Katja Grace has gathered an interesting list of hypotheses that could explain why we were so slow to get going.