The short essay that started all of this is on Medium. The 3-minute version is on YouTube.
In 2026, the detail you’d cut is the detail that earns. Here’s why.
Author: Robert Thompson
Kierkegaard Named Your Anxiety in 1844. Wellness Coaches Now Charge $200/Hour to Repeat It.
Read time: ~12 min. Also available as a shorter essay on Medium and a 7-minute video on YouTube. The companion journal — The Door Audit — is available if this lands.
The Danish philosopher who saw your panic attack coming before electricity did.
Why this matters now: Anxiety diagnoses in adults under 35 have climbed for fifteen consecutive years — and most of what we’re selling as treatment is repackaged 19th-century philosophy.… Read the rest “Kierkegaard Named Your Anxiety in 1844. Wellness Coaches Now Charge $200/Hour to Repeat It.”
Read time: ~12 min. Also available as a shorter essay on Medium and a 7-minute video on YouTube. The companion journal — The Door Audit — is available if this lands.
The Danish philosopher who saw your panic attack coming before electricity did.
Why this matters now: Anxiety diagnoses in adults under 35 have climbed for fifteen consecutive years — and most of what we’re selling as treatment is repackaged 19th-century philosophy.… Read the rest “Kierkegaard Named Your Anxiety in 1844. Wellness Coaches Now Charge $200/Hour to Repeat It.”
You’re Not Anxious. You’ve Been Trained to Absorb Everyone Else’s Stress.
Video: 2-minute version · 9-minute full breakdown. Essay: Medium.
Last week, someone left a passive-aggressive comment on something I’d posted online.
It wasn’t even mean. It was that worse, smaller thing — a polite “actually…” that implied I had no idea what I was talking about. My chest got tight.… Read the rest “You’re Not Anxious. You’ve Been Trained to Absorb Everyone Else’s Stress.”
Why Your Best Ideas Keep Dying in the Feed — And the Cognitive Trap Behind It
Reading time: ~12 minutes
In 1990, a Stanford PhD student named Elizabeth Newton ran an experiment that should have permanently humbled every smart person on the internet.
She had volunteers tap out the rhythm of well-known songs on a table — Happy Birthday, The Star-Spangled Banner, songs everyone knows.… Read the rest “Why Your Best Ideas Keep Dying in the Feed — And the Cognitive Trap Behind It”
Reading time: ~12 minutes
In 1990, a Stanford PhD student named Elizabeth Newton ran an experiment that should have permanently humbled every smart person on the internet.
She had volunteers tap out the rhythm of well-known songs on a table — Happy Birthday, The Star-Spangled Banner, songs everyone knows.… Read the rest “Why Your Best Ideas Keep Dying in the Feed — And the Cognitive Trap Behind It”
Via Negativa: The Ancient Mental Model That Cures Modern Distraction
The fastest way to improve a system isn’t adding the right thing. It’s removing the wrong one.
This is the core principle of via negativa — and it may be the most powerful mental model for focus and productivity that most people have never applied.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was forty days from bankruptcy.… Read the rest “Via Negativa: The Ancient Mental Model That Cures Modern Distraction”