Alchemy For Life

The Blind Spot to Blind Spots: Why your Mind Seeks Comfort Over Truth Well, hey there. Welcome back. You know, every article I’ve written, and I have over 3 million views on my articles on Quora, every non-fiction book I’ve written, and every one of these 350-plus podcast episodes, they were all written with a simple premise. And that premise is that I and everyone else are operating f...

Why We Hide Our Real Feelings When Asked “How Are You?” Well, hey there. Welcome back. How are you? No, I mean it. How are you doing? Are you okay? Are you good? Are you fine? Are you going through something? Odds are that right now you’re not really registering that someone is genuinely curious as to how you’re doing. So you’re not really thinking about how you&#8217...

Make the decision! Well, hey there. Welcome back. I’ve been thinking a lot about, well, overthinking. As someone who’s a self-professed overthinker, I also notice that I’m typically not accused of it by others. Do you think you overthink? Do you overthink a lot? Is it just sometimes? Is it only in your personal life, but you don’t do it at work? And what’s the differe...

Understanding Predatory Bias, Evolutionary Survival Instincts and Cones & Rods (also pareidolia and apophenia) Well, hey there. Welcome back. Have you ever— oh, wait, what is… Oh, sorry. I was confused there. I thought the pile of clothing on the floor was a dog. Has that ever happened to you? What about when you’re taking a walk, or you’re outside, or driving, and it’s...

Trapping a moment of reality in time. Well, hey there. Welcome back. As someone who’s recorded over 300 of these episodes, I’ve become aware of something. And it might surprise you to know that I’ve listened to these, each one of them, probably at least twice. And no, it’s not because of some narcissistic need to hear my own lovely voice— why, thank you for saying that! It&...

What It Really Means to Be on the Fence Well, hey there. Welcome back. You know, at one point, you might have been on the fence about whether you’re going to listen to this episode or stick with the podcast or subscribe to it. There may be hundreds of things you’ve been on the fence about in your life. And when was the last time you actually used that phrase with another human? Because...

Why the Word “Consistent” Triggers Defensiveness Well, hey there. Welcome back. Boy, you sure are consistent! Well, I just jump right into that, don’t I? Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about being consistent and consistency, because that’s one of those words you hear and you’re like… what? It’s certainly something that naturally affects and...

What Most People Get Wrong About Dopamine But you’d be wrong. Well, hey there. Welcome back. I hope you brought a considerable amount of dopamine, because you’re going to need it. You hear that word a lot, don’t you? And when you hear dopamine, you think of reward, right? You think, “Oh, I got a dopamine hit.” You think of gambling and shiny things and all the reward...

in 1656 Blaise Pascal wrote in a long letter at the very end (in French) “I have made this longer only because I did not have the time to make it shorter.” His point was that it takes effort to make something shorter. This is the effort that I have used to make my podcast episodes only about 10 minutes. And I’ve done so for over 300 episodes. Join me for a celebration, reaffirmin...

Can you truly never go without intent? How important is intent in your everyday actions?

Well, hey there. Welcome back. It takes a lot to keep coming back like this. And that’s actually what we’re going to talk about today. So, let me ask you this to hook you in the beginning. So, is there something that you do that you are kind of keeping tally on? Like it’s been X amount of days that you’ve done this. Like you go on a diet or you quit smoking or you’re...

A poetic episode.

Introduction: The Line Between Learning and Stealing Well, hey there. Welcome back. And I really mean that. I’m really glad you’re here. I’m really glad that you enjoy my vast library of information. In fact, I want you to do whatever you want with it. If you can accomplish something or understand something, in fact, there’s really no limit to what I would like you to do wi...

Introduction: Do I Have the Will to Go On? Do I even have the will to go on with this episode? Well, hey there, welcome back. Do I even have the will to go on with this episode? Um, I do, but I also have something better. The Willpower Battery: Why “Raw Dogging” Change Fails Let’s talk about that. If you’ve read my book Because… First of all, thank you. But if you hav...

The Stigma of Adult Curiosity You know it’s okay to be curious. You don’t need me to tell you that… or or or do you? Let’s think about this and we’re jumping right in. Let’s talk about curiosity and what it means to you. There have probably been a number of times in your life in which you either demonstrated curiosity or saw someone else being curious. And proba...

Well, hey there. Welcome back. Do you like music? The Hidden Magic of Good Music It’s a silly question because everyone likes some form of music and sometimes when someone asks you, “What’s your favorite kind of music?” sometimes that’s really hard to answer. I recently went down yet another rabbit hole which I want to share with you. I wanted to know why certain song...

Oh crap. I have to take care of this. Well, hey there. Welcome back. How Time Dictates Perceived Value This podcast episode is about 10 minutes long. If it was about 30 minutes long, would you find it to be more valuable or less valuable? And do you ask me then? Well, Mark, it depends what’s inside of it. It depends what the content is. Okay, what if it was an hour and a half? Well, you agai...

If you are interested in working with AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.), in human psychology, or both, you might enjoy this episode. If you ask yourself, “What is prompting” or “What is a super prompt” you’ll also enjoy this. Transcript: The Ubiquity of AI in Business So, what prompted you to listen to this episode? Uh, get it? Oh, not yet. Well, you will. I’ve...

What is a vision board? What is an anti-vision board? Transcript Well, hey there. Welcome back. What’s your vision? The Traditional Vision Board So, here’s a question. Have you ever used a vision board? A vision board is typically a physical place, almost like a bulletin board. It’s usually something larger than a sheet of paper that people place pictures, words, and inspiration....

Disclaimer: this episode is based on my proprietary behavior mapping system. This system is used in conjunction with a discovery conversation I have with an individual. In the case of mapping public figures this is purely an independent analysis and opinion based on publicly available research. See citations below article. Transcript: You’re probably like me in that you’re a very visua...

Well, hey there. Welcome back. Let’s talk about the dark side of things. I don’t mean the dark side of everything, even though that sounds kind of exciting, doesn’t it? Okay, let’s rewind. The Psychology of Motivation: Monsters and Unicorns My recent book because talks about fundamental building blocks. In simple terms, it’s built on Freud’s pleasure principle....

Tell me the problem in three words. Well, hey there. Welcome back. The “Favorite Three” Listening Game Today I want to talk to you about something that was a communication tool and kind of a game. And it all centers around the number three. When my kids were younger, I used to play a game with them in the car. And the game was Favorite Three. And it was such a natural hit that we would...

If your resolutions failed this is why, and this is how you can have success in 2026. The New Year’s Resolution Check-In It’s February 1st. How did you do on your New Year’s resolutions? I know. I know. Here we go. But it’s not something I’m ever going to stop talking about. and we’ve had at least one, if not two or more episodes on New Year’s resolutions...

The Discomfort of the Sales Funnel Have I said how funnels feel icky to me? Well, hey there. Welcome back. Do you like funnels? I don’t mean like for refilling your oil or delicious funnel cakes. I mean, well, let’s let’s talk about this. So, as many of you know, there’s a concept called the sales funnel. It’s a process where you get someone into a process and kind of...

Transcript of episode: Well, hey there. Welcome back. Why We Remember Firsts But Miss the Lasts There’s a lot of talk about the first time you do something. You remember your first time at something. But the reverse isn’t exactly true because it takes a bit of time to realize it truly was the last time because in some cases there’s a chance you might do it again. But thinking bac...