This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
What kind of life would you live if you didn’t allow your fears to hold you back? The Courage Habit offers a powerful program to help you conquer your inner critic, work toward your highest aspirations, and build a courageous community. Are your fears preventing you from living the life you truly want? Do you ever wish that you had a better job, lived in a different city, or had more authentic and nurturing relationships? Many people believe that they would do more, accomplish more, and feel more fulfilled if only they could rid themselves of that fearful inner voice that constantly whispers, “you can’t do it.” In The Courage Habit, certified life coach Kate Swoboda offers a unique program based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you act courageously in spite of fear. By identifying your fear triggers, releasing yourself from your past experiences, and acting on what you truly value, you can make courage a daily habit. Using a practical four-part program, you’ll learn to understand the emotions that arise when fears are triggered, and to pause and evaluate your emotional state before you act. You’ll discover how to listen without attachment to the self-defeating messages of your inner critic, understand the critic’s function, and implement respectful boundaries so that your inner voice no longer controls your behavior. You’ll reframe self-limiting life narratives that can—without conscious awareness—dictate your day-to-day decisions. And finally, you’ll nurture more authentic connections with family, friends, and community in order to find support and reinforce the life changes you’re making. If you feel like something is holding you back from landing your dream job, moving to a new city, having a satisfying love relationship, or simply taking advantage of all life has to offer—and if you have a sneaking suspicion that that something is you—then this one-of-a-kind guide will show you how to finally break free from self-doubt and start living your best life.
In this “powerful personal story woven with a rich analysis of what we all seek” (Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google), Mo Gawdat, Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], applies his superior logic and problem solving skills to understand how the brain processes joy and sadness—and then he solves for happy. In 2001 Mo Gawdat realized that despite his incredible success, he was desperately unhappy. A lifelong learner, he attacked the problem as an engineer would: examining all the provable facts and scrupulously applying logic. Eventually, his countless hours of research and science proved successful, and he discovered the equation for permanent happiness. Thirteen years later, Mo’s algorithm would be put to the ultimate test. After the sudden death of his son, Ali, Mo and his family turned to his equation—and it saved them from despair. In dealing with the horrible loss, Mo found his mission: he would pull off the type of “moonshot” goal that he and his colleagues were always aiming for—he would share his equation with the world and help as many people as possible become happier. In Solve for Happy Mo questions some of the most fundamental aspects of our existence, shares the underlying reasons for suffering, and plots out a step-by-step process for achieving lifelong happiness and enduring contentment. He shows us how to view life through a clear lens, teaching us how to dispel the illusions that cloud our thinking; overcome the brain’s blind spots; and embrace five ultimate truths. No matter what obstacles we face, what burdens we bear, what trials we’ve experienced, we can all be content with our present situation and optimistic about the future.
The use of measures of economic output to guide policymaking has been criticized for decades because of their weak ties to human well-being. Recently, many scholars and politicians have called for measures of happiness or subjective well-being to be used to guide policy in people's true interests. In The Illusion of Well-Being, Mark D. White explains why using happiness as a tool for policymaking is misguided and unethical. Happiness is too vague a term to define, and too general a concept, to measure in a way that captures people's true feelings. He extends this critique to well-being in general and concludes that no measure of well-being can do justice to people's true interests, which are complex, multifaceted, and subjective. White suggests instead that policymaking be conducted according to respect and responsiveness, promoting the true interests of citizens while addressing their real needs, and devoting government resources to where they can do the most good.
"In a dry Kansas riverbed, a troop of Girl Scouts finds a human hand. This discovery leads Billy Spire, the tough and broken sheriff of Ewing County, to confront the depths of his community. The racism, the dying economy, the lies and truths of friendship, and his own injured marriage. But like any town where people still breathe, there is also love and hope and the possibility of redemption. To flyover people, Ewing County appears nothing more than a handful of empty streets amid crop circles and the meandering, depleted Arkansas River. But the truth of this place - the interwoven lives and stories - is anything but simple"--
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.
This book shows how a system theoretical concept of technology helps us to understand the paradoxes of control. It describes a phenomenon which shows regularity that is unexpected against the background of received knowledge within management studies. It presents a series of cases which touch upon a range of technologies within the public sector.
Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility investigates the philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism and their implications. Skepticism about free will and moral responsibility has been on the rise in recent years. In fact, a significant number of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists now either doubt or outright deny the existence of free will and/or moral responsibility—and the list of prominent skeptics appears to grow by the day. Given the profound importance that the concepts of free will and moral responsibility hold in our lives—in understanding ourselves, society, and the law—it is important that we explore what is behind this new wave of skepticism. It is also important that we explore the potential consequences of skepticism for ourselves and society. Edited by Gregg D. Caruso, this collection of new essays brings together an internationally recognized line-up of contributors, most of whom hold skeptical positions of some sort, to display and explore the leading arguments for free will skepticism and to debate their implications.