The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

by Amanda Montell

Regret is a natural reaction to past stumbles, and acknowledging it can help someone move forward.

But it comforts me to know that my choices didn’t make me an indefensible numbskull. They made me a social creature, full of hope, who wanted a beautiful story to be told about her.

A toxic relationship is just a cult of one.

There was a limited quantity of light in the universe, I was sure, and merely learning that someone else was burning bright dimmed me.

No one exits the womb fully equipped with the tools to self-actualize. People have always looked to each other to figure out who the hell they are.

My mother always told me that when people get sick, they become more extreme versions of themselves.

They definitely do make things like they used to—many more of them, in fact. There’s just an excess of garbage in the mix as well.

When assessing the salience of contemporary concerns, we can’t always trust our attention as the most reliable barometer.

As journalist Roger Lowenstein wrote in his book When Genius Failed, “There is nothing like success to blind one to the possibility of failure.”

favorite quote from the book Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) by psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson reads, “It’s the people who almost decide to live in glass houses who throw the first stones.”

A canon of studies has replicated this finding that facts disproving one’s stance are not only unconvincing, they make a person dig in harder. It’s been termed the “backfire effect.”

The emotional burden of too much information can’t always be quelled by more information.