I painted the Prime Minister
This is where self-improvement gets you
Latest
The UNBELIEVABLE results of dopamine detox
Number 7 will surprise you
Rope-a-dopamine
Dopamine fasting makes no sense, but I'm doing it anyway
I don't like the drugs, but
With ADHD, the adventure chooses you!
The Cynic's Guide to Sobriety
Because we live in a sodden society
Introducing the Cynic's Guide to Self-Improvement Podcast
(Sort of)
Map of the Problematic
What to do when your heroes are horrible?
Making The Link
All the self-improvement news that's fit to link
Going To Pot
Nature is healing
The Bitter-Pill Truth About Making Your Bed
Bed Making (feat. Jaw-Dropping Results)
He's checking in
A weekly(?) check-in email
Hey Arnold: a review of Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger
It's one of the better self-help books. But will it actually help?
Two steps forward, one step back
Sometimes, to get to where you want to be, you have to do some reversing.
The Stories Men Tell Themselves
Myth busted: being masculine doesn't have to mean being fretful and fragile.
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Now live on Ghost
This is The Cynic's Guide To Self-Improvement, a new version of a former Substack newsletter by Joshua Drummond. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new
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Are New Year's resolutions doomed to fail?
Turns out the popular wisdom on this perennial favourite topic is all wrong
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Substackers against Nazis
Sex work is banned on Substack, but National Socialism is fine.
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Shut Up To Succeed
Should you tell people about your goals, or just get on with them?
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Yeet your phone
I should have written this one ten years ago
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Heavy lifting
Every other day, I leave the box I live in, get into a box with wheels, and travel to another box, where the heavy things are.
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The #1 thing most adults wish they could get better at
Gidday Cynics, This newsletter has been a long time coming. This is strange, because it’s one of the very few areas in self-improvement where I already understand the topic, I’m reasonably proficient at it, and I even know a bit about how to teach it. What’s more,
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Interlude
A quick one, this week, because, well… Our cat Bianca died a few days ago. It was sudden. We’d hoped to have a couple more weeks, but she became unable to eat, and keeping her longer wouldn’t have been right. She arched and smooched and purred in the
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A NU START
On beginning again (and again), art as a form of self-improvement, immortality, and cats.
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Continue
The last two weeks have been hard. When I try to write it up, as I have many times now, I’m hit with a wave of weariness. Inside and out, everything seems drained of colour and vitality. It’s hard to do anything but sit and scroll, even though