The depressed people were far more accurate in estimating how much influence their actions had on the outcome of the game compared to their nondepressed counterparts, who consistently overestimated the effects of their own choices on their chances of winning.

Then I remember this other study (CW animal testing) where they put rats in a bucket of water that they couldn’t get out of, so they’d have to swim. There was a fairly consistent point at which the swimming rat would falter, and stop swimming, fated to drown.

Except that that’s when the researchers would pull the rat out of the bucket, give it a nice rest warmth and a meal.

When those SAME rats who had been rescued before were put in the same situation again, they swam much LONGER than they had before.

Why? The risk was the same either way- drowning. You’d have thought that the fear of drowning would keep them swimming to their maximum length no matter what.

The researchers conclusion was that the rescued rats had something they hadn’t had the first time- they had more hope. A miraculous rescue could come, and that let them swim for longer, just in case.

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

A Spy x Family Damian Meta-Analysis Post on Growth and Maturity

First, it's important to understand that even though he says he's happy about his new classes without Anya, Damian hates change. He defaults to what is familiar and safe.

Anya, on the other hand, easily adapts and improvises in new situations with confidence. I say from personal experience that little boys love to play with little girls that have this type of personality. In PreK - 1st grade, both my daughters had a little cult following of boys...

During recess, both of them got kissed by boys 😂 (it was innocent & was addressed) and both got little marriage proposals from boys. This is the age where kids begin to learn how to handle all sorts of feelings. My son kissed a little girl classmate at recess in Kindergarten! 🤭

My point is, this isn't abnormal, and it's a healthy part of growing up. But for kids like Damian, it's scary because it's unfamiliar. So he fights these new, intrusive thoughts and feelings. They're a threat to his feeling of safety. He doesn't have the tools yet to process them.

Oh boy. Aside from Ewen—and even that sparked jealousy—he’s never seen boys show interest in Anya. This is new. She’s glowing, but not for the reason he assumes. It hits like a freight train. Denial won’t save him if he admits the truth, and it is the only coping strategy he knows.

Enter Becky, our high emo IQ diabolical pot-stirrer. Here for the drama. She makes a bad situation worse and throws Damian into a panic. And what's Damian's biggest fear? Being forgotten. He has a terrifying vision of losing Anya forever, and he's shook.

Becky, you play dirty.

Cue the nightmares, poor guy! I love that he's clad in a Stella shield and Eden's logo circlet. He sees this as a threat to his success, and the Goliath of jealousy and envy ultimately defeats him, because he cannot deny his true feelings - something we all have to learn as we mature.

Finally, Damian admits to himself that his feelings are legitimate and starts thinking on it. His buddies notice him struggling and offer support but he's not ready to fully share his realization just yet. Cue the brilliant "So I have this friend" idea😂We've all done it!

Damian's feels are big. Bigger than most kids. So when his buddies see how much this is affecting him, it has unintended consequences for them, too. Now nobody can sleep😭The fear of being forgotten is very real & scary, especially for kids this age. Time for a new strategy!

I love Mr. Green. I love that the boys trust him enough to ask him for help. He suggests that new and unfamiliar feelings must be understood, acknowledged, and accepted for what they are before we can process them in a healthy way. Then and only then can the paradigm shift. Brilliant.

As a master teacher, he then gives them their first new tool for their tool belt. The boys take the info back to Damian and adorably mistake the rare ability to "paradigm shift" for a "paradise fist" and Damian is naturally drawn to the idea that he can take control of his own thoughts.

Damian rarely lies, but he makes up a silly distant "friend" and tells Ewen and Emile what they need to hear: they are his only true friends and they're dear to him😭and we get to witness a sweet moment with these three boys that care for each other so much. Be still my heart!

Cue the best Damian scene in the manga to date. He has a heart of gold. With the proper tools in his belt, this boy can change the world. We finally see him embracing the new - empowered, courageous, and willing to make peace with conflict - a huge "paradigm shift" for him!

This moment had me tearing up, tbh. It is not only a huge moment for Damian, but for the story. We have a Desmond who has an open heart; desiring connection and understanding before dismissal and judgment. He has a beautiful spirit. Man, I love this kid. Future leader of integrity.

This boy takes his tools seriously. He's a scholar, and his approach to his emotional learning is no different. He designs a little Paradise Fist (SO CUTE), symbolizing his new mindset paradigm shift. Becky makes fun of his nerdiness, but there's only one person's opinion he cares about.

The first test! Mr. Buzz appears. Anya and Damian notice each other and he braces for the worst but she is enthralled with his creation, gushes over it, ignoring the other boys.

My absolute fave is the little buzz falling off screen as he gets the reward of her attention just for being himself.

Damian and Anya don’t realize it yet, but they fit perfectly: imaginative, driven, bold, and hilariously nerdy. Becky may try to change Anya—but Damian will always love and appreciate her as she is. Soon, he’ll realize the key to Anya's heart is exactly the same.🩷💚 +100 for growth!

It's the wikipedia image??? How big could it be

What

I can't be the only one who noticed that in stories written by women power is often compared to a prison or a cage meanwhile in the ones written by men it's mostly fun and freedom.

It is that women tend to see power as more of an responsibility and men think of it as the ability to do whatever they want?

The apothecary diaries made me think of it first. I discovered with surprise that I actually like the emperor, which I almost never do. Any guy that has relationship with more than one woman at once tends to disgust me, especially if he's in a position of power but for some reason not him.

Because the emperor is as much a prisoner as the 2000 women in the rear palace. Maybe even more because as long as he doesn't touch them, they're allowed to leave.

Like on one hand, he's the most powerful man in the empire. He calls the shots, right?

But on the other hand, he can't even properly protect Lishu from being sold to some pedofile by her father. The only way he could protect her was to make her his concubine and how f*cked up is that? She's like a daughter to him and the only way he could protect her was by marrying her? And then he couldn't even spend time with her anymore because that would be read wrong.

It's the fact that 3 of his children died because there was no proper medic to save them due to the fact that they don't allow non eunuchs to treat them and forbid women practicing medicine... when he doesn't even care about that. He hasn't blinked once at Maomao running around the inner palace and being a doctor.

At first when I was watching the story I thought of how horrible it was that he didn't even visit Lady Lihua after their son died. But then it made me think of how he's literally not allowed to get attached because of his position and how hard it is for him? The fact that he couldn't even provide enough support for Lady Ah-Duo so she doesn't lose her uterus? The fact that she switched their baby with his brother and he had to watch his son grow up "away" from him?

There's so much more to this, especially with Jinshis approach to power and I could go on an on but I think I made my point.

And when I started comparing the stories written by women to those by men... Women tend to write power as more of a burden than a gift.

After watching TAD I watched solo leveling.

And for those of you who don't know, it's basically a story about a guy who suddenly "discovers" that he's like a character in a game (not exactly but it's be too long to explain) and basically finds out that he has endless potential and over the course of the story he becomes the most powerful being in the entire universe.

And there's a moment where he's talking to his little sisters friend that gets very misread as something inappropriate by another character.

This other character points out, kindly, to Sung Jinwoo that the girl is a minor.

Sun Jinwoo doesn't understand so he just looks at him and asks "so?".

And so the guy immediately gets scared and never mentions it again despite the two of them being friends.

This moment is kind of played for laughs. Nothing actually happened, Sung Jinwoo is a good guy so he wouldn't.

But he could. Nobody could do anything to stop him.

And when I watched that I laughed too. But then I thought of how terrifying that is. To have someone be so above the law, this untouchable. Who can do anything he pleases because no one will ever stop him.

But that's never actually adressed in the show other than to show us how cool this is.

It this was written by Natsu Hyūga there'd probably be a million different situations to show us how fucked up this is and how it weighs on the main character.