Psychology - Aashay Mody

Aashay Mody

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Psychology

A collection of 12 posts

On the overjustification effect

The world of startups is as thrilling as it is relentless, with success often measured by how much capital you've raised or how many users your product has. It can be easy to lose sight of original intentions, as I discovered through my journey with edgi, the startup

On unlocking the unconscious

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. - Carl Jung Jung’s insightful words reveal how our unexamined inner world can shape our reality. The unconscious mind is a powerful force driving our emotions, decisions, and actions. Its unseen influence

On attention

If I told you we live in a world full of distractions, you would probably nod in agreement or roll your eyes and think “No shit, Sherlock.” Take a step back for a second and think about how we’ve become so indifferent to this idea. We’ve been conditioned

On Aristotle, eudaimonia, and the Golden Mean

Ancient philosophers attempted to answer a lot of the questions we still grapple with today. Questions about the nature of reality, our existence, and understanding what knowledge is. Aristotle, who is sometimes credited with founding the field of biology as we know it today, had many of the same interests.

On happiness and social connection

You might assume that we are creatures that are built to be happy. But the sad thing is that we're really not wired for happiness. During a recent YouTube binge, I stumbled upon this video featuring Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale who studies the science of

On fear, uncertainty, and doubt

During the 1950s and 60s, the tobacco industry infamously used fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) as a propaganda technique. To protect their cash cow, they not only deliberately sowed doubt about the growing evidence against cigarette use by funding dubious studies, but also brazenly promoted ads like this: These tactics

On the paradox of choice

As humans, we have a natural tendency to seek out more options, believing that more choices will always lead to greater satisfaction. However, as psychologist Barry Schwartz points out, too many options can actually lead to a paradoxical decrease in satisfaction. This is what he calls the paradox of choice:

On unlearning and rethinking

From a young age, many of us are taught that conviction and confidence are indisputable virtues. In school, we’re rewarded for being right and punished for being wrong, even on topics that don’t have black-or-white answers. With friends, we play status games by attempting to prove each other

On the sailboat of life

One of the main reasons I decided to take a sabbatical recently was my desire to get to know myself better and understand what motivates me at a deeper level. A particular area of reflection was growing up in a religious household. At some point in my teenage years, the

On quitting

Modern culture glorifies perseverance and grit. While these qualities have obvious value, too much of anything can be detrimental. We also tend to stigmatize quitting and see it as a failure. However, quitting can sometimes be a wise choice. As a startup founder, one of the most important skills you

On the psychologically rich life

What does it mean to live a good life? Philosophers have been attempting to answer this question for millennia and the debate persists today. Along with life’s other big questions, it’s something I’ve occasionally thought about as well, though not in any great detail. Until recently, psychological

On flow

Flow is the state in which you becoming completely immersed in an activity with effortlessness. Everything else seems to disappear. It’s the feeling that’s sometimes described as being “in the zone” by athletes. Here’s legendary Formula One driver Ayrton Senna describing one of his experiences: I was