Category: The human condition

Articles about the human condition – our common traits and what makes us tick.

Good health

Good health

  It’s the festive season—a time to gather with friends and family to celebrate the year passed, a time to toast one another’s good health. Health. Such a deceptively dull word and yet the...

The ninth need

The ninth need

  In addition to the eight needs in my theory of universal human needs, I believe we also share an over-arching ninth need: the need to understand who we are, why we exist, how...

A theory of universal human needs

A theory of universal human needs

  Even simpler than Abraham Maslow’s 5-tier Hierarchy of Needs, and Clayton Alderfer’s 3-part ERG Theory, my Theory of Universal Human Needs has just two types of need: survival and betterment. Why we do the things we do. Survival needs Betterment...

Cinema unanimity

Cinema unanimity

  A strange thing happens in cinemas: unanimity. In the real world, few of us can agree on how we should live our lives; but as cinema-goers we are typically unanimous—that’s right, unanimous—about what...

Organized for romance

Organized for romance

If I had to describe my experience of fatherhood in a single word I would choose surprising. Sure, wonderful, exhausting, fun, and rewarding would all have made the list, but surprise is the emotion I...