Hey everyone! Life, work, and grad-school prep pulled me away for a while, but I’ve still been developing a lot of these ideas in the background and I want to start re-engaging here consistently again. One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how modern people may increasingly belong to competing “Cultural Information Networks” instead of one shared national culture. Historically, most people inherited: - religion, - traditions, - values, - identity, - and worldview from local institutions and family/community networks. Now a huge percentage of that transmission is happening online through algorithms and digital tribes. I’m curious: Do you think it's more advantageous to be United under one robust culture or have multiple cultures negotiating survival amongst each other under a veil of a shared reality?

How do I know if I want to gain muscle? How do I know if want to lose fat?

Introduction I wonder if you and I have things in common. I work 6 days a week. 3 pm to 10 pm Tuesday through Friday. 9 am to 5 pm Saturday through Sunday. My day off is Monday. I drive for a living.

Why getting up at 12 pm. Is hard on your body.

Here is an example of 8 questions that can help you start to see how having the information found in Lesson 2 can help you view yourself, others and events in your life with a new perspective. If there is anything else from this lesson that you would like to discuss, or if you have any questions about anything, I would love to discuss that as well. Brandon 1. Predictive Brains: How does understanding that the brain is a “prediction machine” change the way you think about your own beliefs or emotional reactions? 2. Constructed Emotion: Barrett argues that emotions are constructed from concepts we learn. Which emotion do you think was most shaped by your own upbringing or culture? 3. Cultural Learning: Henrich shows that humans copy the successful and prestigious. Who would you say has shaped you more — your family, your peers, or people you admire from a distance? 4. Stress & Belief Rigidity: Sapolsky shows that stress narrows thinking and makes beliefs more rigid. Can you think of a time when stress made you double down on a belief — or question one? 5. Dopamine & Meaning: Lembke explains how overstimulation can distort motivation and meaning. Which modern source of stimulation (phones, food, entertainment, etc.) do you think most affects people’s clarity today? 6. Collective Brain: Human intelligence is largely shared intelligence. In your own life, what kinds of knowledge or skills do you have only because others passed them to you? 7. Identity & Prediction: If our brains are always predicting based on past experience, how much control do you think we actually have over our worldview? 8. Culture as Code: If humans are biologically shaped to absorb cultural “code,” what cultural code do you feel you’re running — and where do you think it came from?