A skeptical dive into the weird, sketchy, occasionally life-changing world
of self-improvement.

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  • Day 28: I am getting an early night and you should too

    Day 28: I am getting an early night and you should too

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    Something I saw some time ago: “Depleted brains seek distraction.” I wish I could attribute it, but I was tired, and scrolling, and now I’ve forgotten without any possibility of recall who said it. But it certainly seems abundantly true; the more tired I am the more likely I am to seek distraction, whether it’s

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  • Noot me on Noots

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    Hello, Cynics. If you subscribe to one or more Substack newsletters, you are now likely drowning in requests to join Notes, the noo feature Substack just launched. Obviously, you should ignore all those other emails, and pay…

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  • Inside you, there aren’t two wolves

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    Hi, Cynics! I hope you don’t mind if I call you that, because I’m going to anyway. I think we could all use a break from ultrapersonal infodumps, so I’m going a bit lighter for this newsletter.…

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  • The Electric Needle ALS Test

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    Hi, This is another personal one, I’m afraid. Bear with me. The longer I go on with this project, the more I realise I can’t continue without telling this story. It’s the foundation for much of my…

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  • Bad things happen when sleep fights back

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    I’m already feeling a bit dizzy. I know why — this often happens when this train of thought arrives — but I can handle it. I think. Deep breath. This isn’t a story I’ve told before. My…

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  • The Sleep Conspiracy

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    Hi, I’m writing this in a haze of sleep deprivation, only slightly offset by a coffee so strong it’s probably illegal in multiple countries. Subscribe It began when my wife went out at 3 AM to direct…

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  • “I worked for a body influencer”

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    Hi, It’s been a while between posts! The good news is that my tardiness is because I got a new job, and it’s been keeping me really busy. The bad news I’d hinted darkly about in previous…

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  • The accidental body double

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    Last time I wrote about what I’d consider success to look like for this self-improvement malarkey. One measure was posting once a week; the other was getting art done. So it was shocking to realise that I’d…

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  • It’s just one of those days when you don’t wanna write stuff

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    Yesterday was a bit shit, to be honest. It started with bad news, not the sort that’s really bad, but the kind that can still send you hurtling over the handlebars of life. Worse, it’s not something…

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  • A cynic’s guide to self-improvement

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    I’m pretty sure most of self-improvement is a scam, but that hasn’t stopped me so far. I’m a sucker for self-improvement, born again every minute. Or at least every ninety days or so, which seems to be…

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  • Coming soon

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    This is The Cynic’s Guide To Self-Improvement. I don’t know why this post is here, how long it’s been here, or how it got published. I think it was some kind of glitch in the Substack setup…

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