Better Inputs

Better Inputs is a framework for understanding the ecology of influences we live within: the ideas and culture we absorb, the technologies that mediate our experience, the people around us, the environments we inhabit, and the habits we practice. In a world saturated with noise and information pollution, we need deeper psychological, intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual nourishment more than ever.

What we take in shapes who we become.

Inputs reach us at different scales, from the personal and relational to the cultural and institutional.

Table of Contents (in progress)

Attention & Understanding

How a world of information, distraction, and stimulation competes for our attention. What captures our attention can deepen – or flatten – our understanding of reality.

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Self-Inputs
The habits, routines, practices, and tools we deliberately use to shape ourselves. This is where we exercise agency within our surroundings.
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Relationships & Social Ecology
How our relationships and social environments influence our behavior, belonging, and sense of self. No one develops in isolation.
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Culture & Meaning
How culture shapes what we value and what gives life meaning. Through shared stories, traditions, art, symbols, and myth, we inherit a sense of what’s normal, good, and possible.
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Society & Power
How institutions and systems create the conditions we live in. Through media, education, and public policy, society sets the defaults.
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Recent Work

Explore the latest articles on navigating a noisy world with greater clarity, discernment, and purpose.

Infotainment and the Expanding Definition of News

News has expanded far beyond traditional journalism, with bedroom monologues, comedy podcasts, and social media posts changing what people recognize as legitimate "news."

Cold War Liberalism and the Deradicalization of Rebellion

How institutions helped redefine rebellion itself — channeling dissent into lifestyle, identity, consumerism, and personal choice while pushing systemic challenges toward the margins.

Cultural Headwaters: How Institutional Ideas Flow Into Common Sense

Common sense has a history. The Springfield Plan is one example of how institutions can carry an idea downstream until it becomes part of everyday life.

Current-Events Man: Lost in the Endless News Cycle

Following the news closely can make us feel informed while leaving us without the context needed to understand what we’re seeing. Deeper landmarks help us connect events into a larger picture and keep our bearings in the endless news cycle.

AI as a Creative Partner: How to Use AI Without Outsourcing Your Creativity

AI can brainstorm, research, edit, and rehearse alongside you — but only you can answer the question that actually matters: is this still yours? Here’s how to make AI a real creative partner instead of a shortcut around your own creative process.

Digital Amnesia: Why Saving Information Is Not the Same as Learning It

Digital tools make it easy to capture and store information before we have really processed it. But once the device has it, the mind may quietly let it go.

4 Types of Civic Engagement: Are We Participating in Society or Just Watching?

Civic life depends on more than paying attention. The way we participate - or don't - shapes who actually has influence.

Flood the Zone: How Misinformation Makes Truth Feel Impossible

Flooding the zone isn't about making you believe one lie. It is about overwhelming the information environment until truth itself feels impossible.

Hasslers: How Difficult People Drain Time From Your Life

Difficult people don't just drain your patience - they may also affect your health. New research on "hasslers" shows how persistent negative social strain can wear us down over time.

Dating Apps Are Confidence Black Holes: The Costs of Swipe-Based Romance

As real life gives us fewer places to meet, dating apps fill the gap – then quietly reshape how we experience attraction, rejection, and ourselves. The real win isn't mastering the swipe; it's finding someone worth logging off for.

Glued to the Screen: Scrolling Hypnosis and the Allure of Easy Dopamine

Social media can pull us into automatic scrolling loops built on novelty, reward, and instant stimulation. Learn how to interrupt the habit and use social media more consciously.

The Nostalgic Power of Rewatching Childhood Movies

Rewatching old favorites can be relaxing, restorative, and surprisingly insightful. Childhood movies don't just bring us back to the past — they show us how far we've traveled since we first watched them.

How Pop Music Became Simpler, Darker, and More Self-Centered

Today's lyrics are becoming darker in tone, simpler in form, and more centered on the isolated self. What does that say about the culture singing along?

Beauty As A Psychological Need: Feeling Deprived in an Ugly World

Daily ugliness quietly shapes how we see the world. Rediscovering beauty in everyday life restores our sense of care, harmony, and meaning.

The Influencer Silo: The Limits of Personality-Driven Social Change

Influencers can make ideas visible, but they can also trap them inside social bubbles. Real change happens when an idea leaves the bubble and becomes part of everyday life.

Hyper-Individualism and the Crab Bucket Mentality

When success feels impossible, people often turn to tearing others down. Crab bucket mentality reveals how resentment, competition, and envy keep everyone stuck.

Meme-Brained: How Shallow Culture Creates Shallow Understanding

In a world of reaction images, doomscrolling, and “brain rot,” memes have become one of the primary ways we process reality. But when symbolic shortcuts replace deeper thinking, our understanding of the world can become shallow and reactive.

Evaluate Your Current Inputs

Take these quizzes to better understand how your habits, relationships, environment, and everyday inputs are shaping you.