What they say instead is something softer, more nuanced: " I just want space." They describe feeling overwhelmed when their partner asks for physical affection, quality time, or emotional closeness. Not because those requests are unreasonable, but because they feel they have nothing left to give. What can look like withdrawal from love in fact often seems more like emotional exhaustion.
The Syrian army and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, have taken part in clashes in Aleppo city this week. The violence reflects a deep rift between the two sides, and many rounds of talks have so far failed to reach common ground. The SDF seeks a decentralised system of government with areas under its control having a certain level of autonomy. But the government in Damascus wants to centralise power. So, what does it all mean for Syria's unity?
"The rules are there ain't no rules." That's what the Scorpions leader told Danny Zucko right before their big drag race against each other in the 1978 movie Grease. That statement could apply as well to what's known as relationship anarchy. Relationship anarchy is a dating or mating approach that rejects traditional relationship rules, hierarchies, norms, and expectations. The emphasis instead is on flexibility, autonomy, and doing whatever you and your partner or partners feel like doing.
An 11-year-old girl described an experience online: "There's peer pressure to pretend it's funny. You feel uncomfortable on the inside, but pretend it's funny on the outside." Was she talking about a specific video? No. She was describing her relationship with violent content on social media. Content she encounters daily. Content the algorithms serve her whether she wants it or not.
Finally, a descriptor that just might work. Finding terms to describe those of us who don't have kids is challenging. We're usually referred to as what we're not (non-moms, unparents, people without kids). Cumbersome, clunky, and not very respectful. Beginning with Major League Baseball in the mid-1970s, free agency gave professional athletes the flexibility to develop their careers after their contracts expired. The practice gradually spread to other professional sports and is now well-accepted by sports organizations and fans around the world.
Tesla has refreshed the Semi truck's design to match the look of the revised Model Y, the Cybertruck and the Cybercab. It gets a full-width light bar, a new bumper and aero tweaks to bring its design up to date. Tesla says the truck is now more efficient, it can tow more and is "designed for autonomy." The Tesla Semi has to be the only vehicle that we know of that received a mid-lifecycle facelift without technically being in productiononly
For example, jobs that pay well, offer stability, and provide opportunities for growth are almost universally considered better. A tenured professorship, a senior engineering role at a reputable company, or a stable medical position all combine financial security with long-term prospects and prestige. In contrast, poorly paid, insecure, or dead-end roles (like gig work with no benefits or exploitative manual labor with long brutal shifts and an alienating experience) are widely viewed as worse, even if a few individuals might value their flexibility or simplicity.
Thinking can be both active and passive. We can choose where to direct our attention and use reason to solve problems or consider why things happen. Still, we cannot completely control our stream of thought; feelings and ideas bubble up from influences outside our control. One kind of passive thinking is letting others think for us. Such passive thinking, Kant thought, was not good for anybody.
I've been single for a long time, and while I'd like to share my life with someone, the idea of sharing my space with anyone other than my cat makes me a little antsy. It's not that I don't want a partner - that's different. But the thought of truly merging lives and being part of each other's day-to-day, all day, forever? That feels a little claustrophobic.
Let me start by saying I genuinely admire Andrew Huberman. His mission to popularize neuroscience to improve lives is as useful as water in the desert, and his actionable strategies have helped countless people, including me. I even use his sponsor recommendations (yes, that fancy mattress works). But expertise in ophthalmology and neuroscience doesn't automatically translate to expertise in motivation science, and that is why things get messy.
What might this be? Well, I don't have a complete answer. But I am convinced that the foundation is developing the ability to live with intention. Intention is nothing other than the ability to make free and conscious choices, and when we are able to do this consistently, we become the authors of our own stories, protagonists who co-create the world rather than being determined by it.
Service design is all about creating seamless interactions between humans and services. The ultimate goal of service design is to streamline experiences, enabling people to achieve more in less time and with less effort. Traditionally, companies invested significant time and resources into making user journeys as easy as possible. Before the AI revolution, this was achieved through digitalization and automation of routine operations. But in the era of AI, the focus is shifting - from automation to AI agents. In this article, I'll discuss how service design will evolve in this new era.
