Out of your comfort zone

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Why success doesn’t always build self esteem; does chess make you smarter; and Netflix kids show about seals a massive hit with dogs and cats.

Let’s get into it!

When someone achieves a goal or milestone and they feel a sense of failure, hopelessness, or worthlessness instead of accomplishment or elation, it’s called the arrival fallacy.

The term was coined by psychologist Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, and here’s how he described it in his book, Happier:

“This time, they’re unhappy, but more than that they’re unhappy without hope. Because before they lived under the illusion—well, the false hope—that once they make it, then they’ll be happy.”

Theoretically, the arrival fallacy is caused by traumatic memories that subconsciously drive people to think they aren’t worthy of joy or success. Several studies have hypothesized a way out of the paradox, including one that seemingly advocates another paradox: changing the past instead of the future.

Clinical psychologists have helped people achieve this by having them conjure troubling memories in order to rewire the narrative. They’re told to imagine their adult self sharing perspective with their younger self, informing them that whatever happened wasn’t the end of everything.

Memories are catalogued as ways for the brain to help anticipate the future. The most impactful ones don’t just predict, but they influence—often erroneously—how we should feel when a moment arrives.

Feeling like you’re not worthy of success? There’s probably a kid somewhere deep down driving that belief who needs someone to show them the grass was always greener.

Those who play chess regularly may report feeling more intelligent, but existing research actually seems to suggest the intelligence is already there, and chess is just a way of flexing those muscles.

Ultimately, however, it’s not really important if there’s a causal relationship between chess and intelligence. That’s because many life skills can observably be learned from chess anyways, and be applied directly in everyday situations.

For example, very good chess players are able to think 10 or 12 moves ahead from how the board is currently assembled, but the best players can do that while also adapting to the guaranteed changes that will come their way during that sequence. In other words, you should have a plan, but be prepared to react when the plan changes.

Along the same lines, chess can teach us how to act strategically and act tactfully. According to neuropsychology graduate student and Psychology Today writer Arash Emamzadeh, this refers to putting oneself in the best position to succeed, and then making the correct moves when presented with those opportunities.

Chess also teaches players about opportunity cost. Every move in chess and life comes at a price, and chess forces one to learn quickly what the exact price is for every move.

Sealook is a Netflix show for kids about a group of seals goofing around on ice and trying to get by with a little help from their friends.

The program is something you’d expect kids to absolutely fawn over, but its real biggest fans appear to actually be dogs and cats.

Švepsė is a rescue cat in Lithuania, and her obsession was captured by her owner and uploaded on Instagram.

“She became very focused on the screen and tried to catch the characters with her paws. Sometimes, she simply sat there watching very carefully without taking her eyes off the screen,” said owner Erika. “We’re used to her watching animal documentaries, but seeing her try to catch the characters in Sealook was something we hadn’t seen before.”

The same went for Houston native Melly Roman’s six-month-old golden retriever, whose Instagram follower count went from 115 to 4,000 after his performance.

“We have the TV on for background noise and he never normally watches,” she said. “But he started barking when one of the seals came really close to the screen. We tried again later and he sat and watched a couple of episodes.”

Veterinarians say dogs and cats see the show’s colors particularly well, and the characters’ high-pitched noises may resemble what dogs and cats hear in prey.

Or hey, maybe they just like cartoon seals.

You’ve heard of the Magna Carta, the Peace at Westphalia, and the Treaty of Versailles, but have you heard of the Peace of Kadesh?

Inscribed into a clay tablet and translated from Akkadian to Turkish, and then Turkish to English, the inscription reads as follows:

“Look, the order fixed for eternity which the Sun God and the God of the Tempest have created for the country of Egypt and the country of Hatti, (that is) peace and fraternity without leaving place among them to any enmity.”

The Battle of Kadesh was fought between the armies of Ramses II and the Hittite king Muwatallis II. It ended around 1,296 BCE, and its peace treaty contained dozens of articles, of which the tablet contains 12 through 20.

It was unearthed last year during excavations of the Hittite royal palace at Buyukkale, and its inscription was carved in the earliest known written language, cuneiform.

Now that’s odd…

Time for another round of odd one out! Put on your thinking cap and see how well you can spot the one that doesn’t belong, with today’s trivia 👀