David C. Pellegrin, Jr.

Love by the levee -- Meraux, Mississippi river downstream of New Orleans

Mildly depressed people are more accurate at assessing reality than healthy people. That finding from 1979 has been replicated for forty years, and it explains why delusional optimism keeps winning. Alloy and Abramson ran a study where depressed and non-depressed students judged how much control they had over a flashing light. The depressed group was more accurate. The non-depressed group systematically overestimated. They named it depressive realism. Sadder but wiser. Nine years later, Shelley Taylor at UCLA reviewed hundreds of studies and concluded that mental health requires three specific illusions: unrealistically positive self-views, exaggerated belief in personal control, and unrealistic optimism about the future. The high-functioning brain runs constant distortions. The accurate brain belongs to the depressed person. Tali Sharot's neuroimaging work at UCL puts the optimism bias at roughly 80% of healthy adults globally, across cultures and ages. The frontal cortex literally underweights bad-news updates. People who lose the bias after brain injury become more accurate forecasters and significantly more depressed. The mechanism is downstream of action. A founder who thinks they have a 50% shot when the base rate is 5% takes the swing. The realist who correctly prices it at 5% never starts the company. Reality conforms to whoever showed up. Seligman's MetLife study is the cleanest data point. He sorted insurance hires by explanatory style. Top-half optimists sold 37% more than bottom-half over two years. Top-decile optimists sold 88% more than bottom-decile. MetLife started hiring people who flunked the standard screening but scored high on optimism. They outperformed too. The trade is being slightly wrong about reality in exchange for everything reality compounds when you keep showing up. The accurate brain is a depressed brain that never tries.

TLDR — 10 habits keeping you in chronic stress: 1) Stop replaying conversations 2) No hypotheticals 3) Limit news 4) Cut tragic content 5) Surrender control 6) Schedule social 7) Daily practice 8) Make it enjoyable 9) Stop chasing dopamine 10) Audit environment

Well at least my son and maybe wife will get to see it. Perhaps I could if medicine makes great strides.

Pirate’s Alley, New Orleans. The alley where Jean Lafitte, Barataria Pirate of the Caribbean sold looted wares. Now location of Faulkner bookstore, one of the best in the south. Faulkner once lived upstairs, Lafitte jailed below. 🗡️📚⚜️

goodnight ☾

Avoiding conflict, anger or any type of uncomfortable emotions, doesn't keep the peace. It only moves those energies from the room into your body

We are the fat, aging bully who doesn’t realize everybody else has been in the gym training for us

@VinnyJay87 @headass_deadass @DrMcFillin Do you think Trazodone is safe for insomnia on a very limited basis? Like during a hospital stay?

@headass_deadass @DrMcFillin My pharmacology training, having tried all sleep meds and 20 years of experience in Pharma. Trazodone breaks down into m-Chlorophenylpiperazine which as dirty as it gets, associated with dysphoria and anxiety.

When your drug dealer... I mean physician... recommends Trazodone, Seroquel or Gabapentin for sleep please send them the clinical guidelines from the Academy of Sleep Medicine. They are tranquilizing children & adults a like. No more bystanders

If you read the lives of Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon you can see how their seemingly delusional mindset shaped their success. Caesar in particular had a knack for turning bad situations to his advantage. He was once kidnapped by pirates in the Mediterranean, but his personality won them over. When they tried to ransom him for 20 talents of silver, he demanded that they raise it to 50. After his release, he raised an army and killed all of the pirates who had previously kidnapped him. He did the most insane political maneuvers too, like running for pontifex maximus at 36 while lacking all of the typical prerequisites. All of this built up an insane aura around him which just accelerated his success.

Literally just having a delusional golden retriever mindset measurably changes outcomes and physiology. Sleep badly? Convince yourself you're well rested. Stressful day? Convince yourself it's fuel. Failed? Convince yourself it's useful data.

I am begging you to unmute this

LIGHTS OUT LOUISIANA - Peak bird migration is underway this week, nearly 200 million birds hitting the skies each night. Turn out your porch lights! #lawx

JetBlue deletes tweet after they were accused of surveillance pricing ✈️ A company rep says the post was an 'error'

@OaktownAaron @CourtyardBrew Sorry not going to Google

@CourtyardBrew I thought Betty White Tit Fuck was a kinda questionable name but then I saw the album title & tracklist

Tonight

@nolacampanella My tiny dog loves getting in standoffs with these things in the backyard at night. They never retreat. They just stand there. It goes on until I show up and retrieve the barking dog.

Tulane today....

I'll stick with the pool, thanks!

@micyoung75 I'd like for Vance and Mike Johnson to go through the criteria for just war and explain why this is one.

Tom Nichols spent nearly 20 years teaching just war theory at Harvard. He is precise about what Vance got wrong. The just war tradition does not tell Christians when God is on their side. It regards war as evil and every life taken - ally or enemy - as a tragedy. Its conditions - just cause, right intention, proportionality, last resort - are not a permission slip. They are questions a leader must answer before risking his mortal soul by sending people to die. After Vance's remarks, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops doctrine chairman put it in writing: Pope Leo is not offering opinions. He is exercising his ministry as Vicar of Christ. That is Bishop Massa's clarification, addressed directly to this situation. Vance told the pope that theology should be "anchored in truth." Nichols identifies that phrase correctly: it means nothing. Whose truth? The bishop of Rome, whom Catholics believe speaks with charism on matters of faith and morals, was told by a recent convert that he should go do his theology homework. The Catholic tradition Vance cited has a name for this disposition. Pope Gregory the Great called pride the queen of all vices. The Latin word is superbia. Proverbs 16:18 has been in the text considerably longer than the Iran war.

@chppyplace I got assigned it in college. I preferred reading in college to high school.

@DavidCPellegrin Invisible Man is on my bookshelf. It was assigned reading when I was a junior in HS, so of course I had no appreciation for it (forced close reading in school tends to suck the joy out of everything). Your tweet reminded me I need to give it a reread.

Great book