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Part 5 of our Donald Trump series. We’ve a Trump supporter – Paddy Connor – in to tell us why Trump isn’t half as bad as many of us have been led to believe, but rather a sound choice. Recorded a few days after Donald Trump was elected in as the President-elect of the United States. It’s important to note that I am not a Trump supporter, nor would I consider myself conservative – which is why it is so important that I seek out my antithesis. You won’t hear me disputing much of what Paddy says. Even when emotionally I want to. I still my mind and listen. I don’t demonise the ‘other side’ -as was rampant during the US election. And because of that I go away with a lot. I gain perspective.

Part 4 of our Donald Trump series. We’ve a Trump supporter – Paddy Connor – in to tell us why Trump isn’t half as bad as many of us have been led to believe, but rather a sound choice. Recorded a few days after Donald Trump was elected in as the President-elect of the United States. It’s important to note that I am not a Trump supporter, nor would I consider myself conservative – which is why it is so important that I seek out my antithesis. You won’t hear me disputing much of what Paddy says. Even when emotionally I want to. I still my mind and listen. I don’t demonise the ‘other side’ -as was rampant during the US election. And because of that I go away with a lot. I gain perspective.

Part 3 of our Donald Trump series. We’ve a Trump supporter – Paddy Connor – in to tell us why Trump isn’t half as bad as many of us have been led to believe, but rather a sound choice. Recorded a few days after Donald Trump was elected in as the President-elect of the United States. It’s important to note that I am not a Trump supporter, nor would I consider myself conservative – which is why it is so important that I seek out my antithesis. You won’t hear me disputing much of what Paddy says. Even when emotionally I want to. I still my mind and listen. I don’t demonise the ‘other side’ -as was rampant during the US election. And because of that I go away with a lot. I gain perspective.

Part 2 of our Donald Trump series. We’ve a Trump supporter – Paddy Connor – in to tell us why Trump isn’t half as bad as many of us have been led to believe, but rather a sound choice. Recorded a few days after Donald Trump was elected in as the President-elect of the United States. It’s important to note that I am not a Trump supporter, nor would I consider myself conservative – which is why it is so important that I seek out my antithesis. You won’t hear me disputing much of what Paddy says. Even when emotionally I want to. I still my mind and listen. I don’t demonise the ‘other side’ -as was rampant during the US election. And because of that I go away with a lot. I gain perspective.

Part 1 of our Donald Trump series. We’ve a Trump supporter – Paddy Connor – in to tell us why Trump isn’t half as bad as many of us have been led to believe, but rather a sound choice. Recorded a few days after Donald Trump was elected in as the President-elect of the United States. It’s important to note that I am not a Trump supporter, nor would I consider myself conservative – which is why it is so important that I seek out my antithesis. You won’t hear me disputing much of what Paddy says. Even when emotionally I want to. I still my mind and listen. I don’t demonise the ‘other side’ -as was rampant during the US election. And because of that I go away with a lot. I gain perspective. The human cognition is a storytelling machine. In our minds, an intricate interlacing of stories interacting with each other and the environment outside to inform and update our models of the world. These models feel right – our brain works overtime to ensure that. And, unless we are delusional, our stories certainly contain shades of truth. But our emotions and limited experiences often lead us astray. Taking us down dark paths in the pursuit of commitment to our models. We are far from rational creatures. When we here or see or feel things conflicting with our internal models we react viscerally. The causer of the disruption becomes the enemy. Our eyes glare, our fists clench and our brains shut down. We begin to debase, dilute, arguing ad hominem: ‘If you aren’t liberal, you’re racist!’ ‘If you’re pro-life, you’re a fascist!’ ‘If you like Marmite, you’re a cunt!’ That has always been the way. But now it seems as though it has seeped throughout our politics, our governments, through western culture; saturating them in saccharine niceties so our freedom of speech is corroded completely. Now we can only say ‘poverty is bad’ and ‘dolphins are nice, but not tasty’  and ‘I love my mum – but not in a freudian way.’ Everything else is off the cards. In our fight for tolerance we have become highly intolerant. With a difference of opinion we would have once had ourselves healthy discourse but now we have anaphylaxis. With all the siren-pitched yelps of the offended impended above us as a wave of disapproval, our right to an opinion is scared out of us (/ass) and

This is part four of the Self-Awareness Series. This one wraps it all up and gives you some applicable tips so that you can walk away more self-aware. It’s been a journey, thank you for going through it with us! This is the Gentlemen’s Game. Be well, Yasin.

This is part 3 of a 4-part series entitled The Self-Awareness Series. ‘You cannot understand yourself in a vacuum.’ Awareness is a life long pursuit. We are born and our concept of the world puts us directly at its centre. Egotistical, chubby balls of tears and poop. It isn’t until around ages 3-4 that children begin to develop the ability to see themselves as separate and unique individuals, and by 5-6 they are transitioning from ‘me, me, me’  to ‘us’, becoming aware of the needs and interests of the group, and using the power of ‘no’ to help define themselves within the group setting. And the development continues beyond the borders of childhood. In all of us. But the degree to which this change occurs varies astronomically from one chap to the next. What is responsible for the degree? The level of self-concept. To paint a picture, i’ll tell a little story. I was on a packed, London train. The soft buzz of mass anxiety can be heard only if you engage – which most tend to avoid (hence the sea of dead eyes). A gentleman gets on and stands by the doors. The doors begin to close and I can see that his head will be caught between them if he doesn’t move it, but this seems obvious so I refrain from saying anything. The doors close in. Not much time left to evade – he must be a pro. WHACK! The man seems perplexed if not slightly annoyed as he rubs his head. The train continues on its journey unperturbed by the man’s ordeal – bastard train. The train slows. Then stops. The doors fly open. The protagonist’s head glides back into the path of the doors. What is he doing? What’s his game plan? The doors begin to close. I look on captivated. This time his head gets caught between the two doors and the pressure looks like it might burst his head open like a grape. He squirms and his head pops forth, liberated if worryingly purple. He grunts and rubs his head furiously. This happens three more times and then the purple-faced man gets off his head misshapen from the beating. Some folk make the same mistakes again and again and again with no idea what’s going wrong. They point the finger at their environment, ‘Bloody train!’, or the people within it, ‘I binge eat because my boss is antagonistic!’ Studies have shown that taking responsibility for the things that happen in your life makes you more cont

Part 2 of the Self-Awareness Series. So! To recap: you have an ego, the gatekeeper. It doesn’t need the right answers – just consistent ones. Consistent with what? Consistent with your ideas, beliefs, morals and experiences. Subsequently, you experience your world through tinted glasses stippled with blind spots galore. Sometimes colours outside the acceptable spectrum sneak in – the garish neon pink of the LGBT, the brutish blue of the conservatives, or the alarming red of immigration – and they seem so overtly wrong, so very offensive, that your blood begins to boil, and your brain begins to shut down. Want some science to back up this big talk? Damn right you do, you wonderfully skeptical fellow! I promise I won’t let it get too dry. In 2004, psychologist Drew Westen and colleagues undertook an examination of the seductive nature of the lies that we tell ourselves. He aimed to discover what happened neurologically when new information arrived that conflicted with our internal models; when our minds were forced into a state of cognitive dissonance. 30 participants -15 liberal, 15 democrat – were slid into a brain scanner (one at a time, sarcastic pleb!), and then fed clear inconsistencies between their party leader’s words and actions. His findings: ‘Once participants had found a way to reason to false conclusions, not only did neural circuits turn off, but circuits involved in positive emotions turned on. The partisan brain didn’t seem just satisfied in feeling better. It worked overtime to feel good, activating reward circuits that give partisans a jolt of positive reinforcement for their biased reasoning.’  Simply put, our brains are rewarded for remaining congruent with our internal models – even if that means lying! Terrifyingly, the more conflicting information we receive the further entrenched in our beliefs we become. What’s the point of all this? Illuminating the overwhelming bias in human thinking allows us to stand closer to rationality by providing us an invaluable weapon in critical thinking. We may begin to question ourselves – our thoughts, feelings, actions. We may begin to strip our idols of their inhuman, infallible, God-like statuses. We may take the magnifying glass of ‘WHY?’ and bring everything under scrutiny. Does this sound scary or tiresome? Denial is kinda cosy, right? I get it. All the hap

Part 1 in the Self-Awareness Series. Who am I? Why am I? The first step. Ask a question of yourself and your mind cannot help but search for an answer. But its like a man searching for some condiment hidden in the fridge – inadequately invasive; dismissive. Find an answer – something that just feels good…

In this episode we discuss how human beings are susceptible to blind obedience to authority and groupthink. Many people believe they are independent thinkers, ‘islands’ doing their own thing, yet research suggests we are all highly malleable, and that we tend to shape ourselves (and allow ourselves to be shaped) to fit in with the…

Hi guys and girls. Today’s guest is Nelson Lo, owner of the very successful London-based tuition company Athena Tuition. Our chat with Nelson was pretty fascinating. Before we get into our discussion about education and learning, we talk about illegal baby names. Then we move onto the importance of having a solid knowledge of the…

Intertwined in our psyche is the strong desire to be accepted, to be validated. And many of us try to fight this inherent need so that we may rise above and become the lone wolf, the island, the fortress – unaffected by that without. Maybe you envision a world where you have been liberated from the…

A key driver of humans: stories. We crave stories. We crave answers. We see cause and we yearn to discover the effect and vice versa. We will do anything we can to discover the story even if that means confabulating. And this leads us to dangerous territory – where my story differs from yours. Where…

Do you hate Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, or the kid that bullied you in school, or Adolf Hitler or even the taxman? Well, if you do, you are only doing yourself harm. Holding resentment is like you ingesting poison, and then waiting for the other person to die. It’s a bad idea, and it’ll only…

And you thought journalling was only for pre-pubescent girls!!?? Hell no! In this episode we celebrate the glorious power of journaling. A daily scribble in my trusty old diary is probably the single best tool I’ve found for managing and improving my thinking, and in so doing, hugely improve my happiness, confidence, productivity and general…

Fashioning a Cool, Sleek Fashion App – The Importance of Humility, Integrity, and Realising Business Doesn’t Have To Be Dog-Eat-Dog.   This episode we have our very first guest – the gracious Jonny Kruger! Owner of The Drop, a fashion app that allows the everyman to have access to high-end, custom- made suits without the…

In the book Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential by Carol S. Dweck we are introduced to two diametrically opposing mindsets: fixed and growth. We are then shown how your success in anything from business to parenting is hugely decided by which of these two mindsets you carry. Amazing book, be sure to check…

In this episode we discuss how easy it can be to fall into the trap of feeling overwhelmed and stressed, especially in the modern world where most of us live in hectic cities and have busy schedules. We talk about our own experiences of feeling overwhelmed, the mistakes we make that lead us to that…