Are You Thinking Your Thoughts, Or Are They Thinking You?
Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of Self-Improvement
How ideas hijack hosts
Sam outlines how ideas propagate by changing host behavior, using historical examples of large-scale conversions.
You like to think of yourself as someone who thinks for themselves. But what if the ideas running through your head aren't really yours — what if they found you, infected you, and quietly rewrote your behaviour to help themselves spread?
In this episode, we take an unusual detour into evolutionary biology — because it turns out the science of genes, parasites, and natural selection explains more about your psychology than most self-help books ever will.
We cover why you are, in a very real sense, a vehicle built to carry ancient replicators. How social media, advertising, and even religion use the same cognitive vulnerabilities as a brain parasite that makes rats fall in love with cats. And why understanding the mechanism of influence is the first — and most underrated — step to genuine mental autonomy.
This is a preview of an episode from How to Change the World. See details below.
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Learn about the evolving story of the human species and our ideas told in chronological order. The podcast is full of fun facts, surprising stories and philosophical insights.
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Growth Mindset Psychology:
Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement.
📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail.com
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:24 You Are a Robot
04:12 Patterns of Nature
05:45 Act 1: Control
06:20 Nico Tinbergen and the Randy Fish
08:46 The Primordial Soup Starter Kit
10:04 Algorithmic Governance
11:24 Act 2: Co-operation
13:44 Moral Judgement and the Birth of Religion
15:25 Act 3: External Control
17:38 Remote Control
20:44 Act 4: Idea Vats
21:10 Consciousness
23:13 What Is a Meme?
24:14 Genes vs Memes Speed
26:03 Idea Propagation
28:29 Carrier Class
30:23 Act 5: Game Theory
31:00 Where to Find the Full Episode
TOPICS
Free will, cognitive bias, evolutionary psychology, memes, Richard Dawkins, selfish gene, mindset, belief systems, mental models, psychology of influence
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