levy

if you remember the old grimm fairy tale, rumpelstiltskin could spin straw into gold. he made a deal with a young woman: guess his name and she keeps her baby. at first it seemed impossible. but once his name was spoken, the power shifted. knowing the name changed everything.

researchers alan levinovitz and awais aftab say the same thing happens in real life. giving something a name can give us power over it. especially when it comes to illness. they call this the rumpelstiltskin effect.

why a name feels like relief

think of a headache that lingers for days. or exhaustion that never seems to end. the uncertainty can be scary. what if it’s serious?

but once a doctor gives you a diagnosis, even before treatment starts, you often feel lighter. because now it has a name. a name cuts through the unknown. it makes the struggle real, and it makes sense of the worry.

more than just medicine

a diagnosis doesn’t only launch treatment. it validates the patient. hearing a doctor say it out loud tells you this is not just in your head. that recognition builds strength. studies show people often report higher satisfaction after receiving a clear diagnosis. it’s not only about healing the body. it’s also about calming the mind.

finding your people

a name can also connect you to others. once something has a label, you can search for support groups, talk with people who share the same journey, and feel less alone. a single word can open the door to a community. and sometimes that community is what keeps people going.

the internet twist

today it’s easy to type symptoms into a search bar and come up with a name yourself. that can feel reassuring even without a doctor’s input. levinovitz and aftab note that naming alone can bring comfort.

but it’s not without risks. misdiagnosis online can fuel unnecessary fear. still, the human mind prefers a label over uncertainty.

the power of words

psychology has long known about the placebo effect. believing something will help can make it work. in the same way, simply having a diagnosis can reduce symptoms. sometimes words carry as much weight as medicine.

the shadow side

labels can also hurt. in mental health, some diagnoses carry stigma. instead of empowering, they can isolate. as psychiatrist ronald w. pies reminds us, no one should be reduced to their diagnosis. labels should help people, not trap them.

a new idea still growing

the rumpelstiltskin effect is a new concept. there’s no massive data yet. but early research suggests words might be more powerful than prescriptions.

one day doctors might discover that the most healing thing they offer is not only medicine. it might be the name they give to what you’re going through.

because sometimes, just like in the story, saying the name changes the ending.

inside cristiano ronaldo’s massive al-nassr contract (via the sun)
• guaranteed annual salary: £178 million
• signing bonus: £24.5 million
• 15% ownership stake in the club
• goal bonus: £80,000 per goal (increases by 20% next season)
• assist bonus: £40,000 per assist (increases by 20% next season)
• league title bonus: £8 million if al-nassr wins the league
• golden boot bonus: £4 million if he finishes as top scorer
• asian champions league bonus: £6.5 million if al-nassr qualifies and wins
• private jet expenses covered by the club: (£4 million value)
• £60 million in guaranteed sponsorship deals

personal full-time staff:
• 3 drivers
• 4 housekeepers
• 2 private chefs
• 3 gardeners
• 4 bodyguards

nudge theory is about guiding people without forcing them. place fruit at eye level and people choose it more often. set savings programs to enroll automatically and people save more. small changes in how choices are presented can lead to better decisions. tiny shifts. big results.

for che guevara, revolution wasn't just about winning battles with weapons. it was about planting the seeds of change in the human spirit. he dreamed of a world where no one would exploit another, where the poor, the workers, and the oppressed would finally be free. che didn't fight for short-term victories — he fought to build a future.

in the mountains of cuba, the valleys of bolivia, and the heat of africa, che wasn't just a soldier. he was a teacher. he taught people to read and write, to defend themselves, and most importantly, to resist. because for che, revolution started not on the battlefield, but within the human soul.

but he also knew that ideals alone weren't enough to sustain a revolution. without sacrifice, discipline, and constant struggle, even the most beautiful dreams would fade. he could have lived comfortably after the cuban revolution's success but that's not who he was. he believed the fight wasn't over, so he kept going.

even when he was surrounded in the bolivian mountains with only a handful of comrades, che still believed in the future. in his final moments, he stood tall because for him, revolution was a path you could never turn back from once you began walking it. that path continues today, in the hearts of those who still speak his name and carry his legacy forward.

check out elon musk's whole h-1b drama. remember when he forced twitter employees into a new "take it or leave" agreement? if you look at photos after that ultimatum, you'll see very few white americans left. most of the remaining folks look like they're on h-1b visas. (yeah, i'm guessing from appearances, but let's be real.)

once musk took over twitter, he discovered the "benefits" of using h-1b labor—big-time. he fired a ton of engineers, but someone still had to keep the place running, and that burden fell on these h-1b holders.

why them? because if the boss says "who do you think you are?" and they can't find another job within 60 days, they'll be forced to leave the country. meta did something similar. and if home is india, you can imagine the predicament—when your boss says "jump," you don't have many other options. anyone who's endured six years on h-1b (unless their company files for a green card right away) knows it's not just "go back home." it's more like "good luck making it back here again anytime soon."

even though my own h-1b experience was in the public sector, i've still felt that sense of being stuck. in private companies—especially under ceos like elon musk—some h-1b folks end up in a situation worse than modern indentured servitude. actually, it's just straight-up servitude. if you're from a country like belgium, you might just say "to heck with this" and head home to a decent life. but if you're a young engineer from india, where are you going to go? you can't just bail out and fly home without losing your future here.

anyone who's spent years on an h-1b in the private sector understands this. if these big companies truly cared about improving stem in america, they'd start by fixing our k-12 education instead of constantly importing cheap labor. if they were sincere, they'd solve the ridiculous green card backlog for indian professionals.

but honestly, their main goal is to grab a pliable, underpaid workforce and push down wages for everyone else. musk jump-started that by gutting twitter, and other companies are following his lead.

this book explains, to a large extent, why some societies thrive while others don’t—when combined with average intelligence levels. but why isn’t intelligence alone enough? let me break it down:

we’re all familiar with south and north korea. south korea is incredibly advanced, constantly innovating, producing high-tech goods, and getting wealthier by the day. the country’s per capita income is more than 20 times that of north korea. in fact, due to the poverty and hunger in the north, south koreans are taller and live longer than their northern neighbors. north korea, on the other hand, can’t even feed its people without foreign aid, let alone produce technology.

the reason behind all this is what acemoglu describes as “extractive” and “inclusive” institutions. south korea has inclusive institutions, while north korea is stuck with extractive ones. as a result, while the south is advancing into space, the north is struggling with famine.

but there’s an important point we need to consider: the average iq levels in these two countries. despite north korea’s backwardness and hardships, their average iq is pretty close to that of south koreans. in fact, south koreans have some of the highest average iq levels in the world.

so what does this mean? it means that even after 50+ years of oppressive extractive institutions, north koreans still have an average iq of around 105, just like their neighbors in the south. if north korea’s extractive institutions were to collapse tomorrow (say, north korea reunites with the south), north koreans would likely become just as wealthy, innovative, and successful as south koreans in a short period of time.

this is where the importance of north koreans’ iq comes in. the moment they break free from their extractive system, they have the potential to become one of the most advanced nations in the world. meanwhile, many countries in latin america or eastern europe that are governed by inclusive institutions haven’t reached south korea’s level of development. this is where the average intelligence of a society plays a role.

take brazil, for instance. despite having inclusive institutions like south korea, brazil’s average iq is around 90, not 105 like south korea. that’s why brazil isn’t able to reach the same level of development. so, while inclusive and extractive institutions are key factors in a nation’s growth, average intelligence levels are equally important.

this means that even if countries like brazil have inclusive institutions, they won’t reach south korea’s level of development unless their average iq rises to similar levels. on the other hand, since north korea has high average intelligence, the moment they switch from extractive to inclusive institutions, they’ll skyrocket to south korea’s level.

of course, establishing inclusive institutions requires a certain level of intelligence. the elites who run extractive systems never want to share power, so it’s up to the people to pressure the elites and force them to create inclusive institutions. but for that to happen, the population needs to be aware and capable of demanding change. while some countries in latin america have managed to do this, north koreans haven’t—likely because of east asia’s ultra-conservative, community-over-individual culture.

this conservative, non-individualistic culture stifles creativity in east asia. a simple example is the apple vs. samsung rivalry. apple, a product of western culture, innovates and changes the world, while samsung takes what apple creates and optimizes it. sure, samsung might beat apple with optimized products, but they’ll never make world-changing innovations like apple does. and that’s because of east asia’s conservative culture. could this be linked to genetics? maybe, but research in this area is still too new to draw any firm conclusions.
(see: daron acemoglu)

i once considered buying a tesla until the u.s. elections made it painfully clear what kind of person elon musk really is. after seeing his behavior and the values he promotes, i couldn't justify supporting him. and i'm not alone. people around the world have been backing away from tesla, with some even going as far as setting their teslas on fire.

in germany alone, tesla sales have dropped by 75%. the company's stock has lost billions of dollars in value. and have you noticed that when you post something critical about tesla on twitter, the engagement seems to disappear? that's not a coincidence.

if you're thinking about buying a tesla, think twice. there are better alternatives out there from companies that don't come with this baggage.

if you want to figure out where you went wrong on something, pay attention to the parts you skip over when you are explaining it to someone else.

this show is by far my favorite show. i don't know how many times i'm watching it now. on this watch i noticed that this show doesn't have a single dead scene or a single toxic character. in most shows there are scenes that add nothing to the overall story that i always want to fast-forward (and even skip outright if i'm watching alone), like unnecessary family or romance scenes thrown in to fill out the runtime (i watched the daredevil born again episodes 15 minutes at a time), or there's a toxic character whose every scene i skip (e.g. the flash -> iris). while watching person of interest it never even crosses my mind to skip a single scene, and there isn't even one main character who makes you hate them (the only one that bugged me was van gogh in the final season, but that one was pretty much a side character).

the best player in the history of world cups. when the world cup comes around, neither messi, nor c. ronaldo, nor fat ronaldo, nor pele, nor maradona can reach this guy's level. the guy switches on goat mode.

some interesting statistics i gathered and pulled together from here and there, based on the finalized 26-man squads (1248 players in total):

clubs represented by the most players in the tournament (based on footballers whose contracts are still active as of the end of june 2026):

manchester city (19)
bayern munich (17)
paris saint-germain (16)
arsenal, fc barcelona (15)
crystal palace, manchester united, al hilal, atletico madrid (12)
galatasaray, liverpool fc, borussia dortmund (11)
fenerbahçe, slavia prague, ac milan, psv eindhoven, real madrid, sunderland (10)

leagues sending the most players to the cup:

english leagues: 205 players, 42 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 184 players are in the national team squads of other countries. in fact, a player named tommy smith was called up to the new zealand national team despite being in this federation's 5th-tier league.

german leagues: 108 players, 8 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 89 players are in other countries' national teams. again, josue duverger, who plays in the 5th-tier league, is in the haiti national team squad.

french leagues: 86 players, 7 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 78 players are in other countries' national teams.

spanish league: 86 players, 5 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 59 players are in other countries' national teams.

italian leagues: 71 players, 5 of them in the lower leagues. all 71 of these players are, of course, in other countries' national teams.

saudi arabian leagues: 49 players. 24 of them are in other countries' national teams.

usa leagues: 48 players, 41 players in other countries' national teams.

turkish leagues: 45 players. 30 players playing in our leagues are in other countries' national teams. in fact, while leandro bacuna from iğdır fk, which is in the tff 1st league, takes part in the tournament as the captain of the curaçao national team, ryan mendes, also from iğdır fk, will take the field as the captain of the cape verde national team.

dutch leagues: 38 players, 36 of them in other countries' national teams.

brazilian league: 32 players, 25 of them in other countries' national teams.

portuguese leagues: 32 players, 27 of them in other countries' national teams.

belgian leagues: 29 players, 26 of them in other countries' national teams.

the list goes on like this. when all the squads are reviewed, some interesting notes emerge.

it turns out there's no national team whose entire 26-man squad plays in its own domestic leagues. the national teams closest to this are qatar and saudi arabia, with 25 players each.
as the exact opposite of the above situation, none of the players in the curaçao, cape verde, democratic republic of congo, uruguay, ivory coast, and senegal national teams play in their own countries' leagues. in fact, apart from uruguay (1 player), not a single player from the other countries' leagues is in any other country's national team either.

participant countries' populations as a share of world population:
participant countries with the highest populations: usa 340 million, brazil 315 million, and mexico 130 million.

participant countries with the lowest populations are curaçao at 195 thousand and cape verde at 570 thousand.

the total population of the participant countries is roughly 2,200,000,000. if we divide it by the current world population (8,300,000,000), this ratio comes out to 26.5%.
for the 2022 qatar world cup: 1,600,000,000 / 8,000,000,000 = 20%

for the 2018 russia world cup: 1,650,000,000 / 7,700,000,000 = 21.4%
as can be seen, even though the number of teams in the tournament was increased by 50%, the rate of increase in the participant countries' populations stayed at around 25%.

confederations' representation rates:

the number of players playing at clubs registered with uefa is 855 (68%). the number of countries participating from uefa is 16. the quota ratio is 16/48 = 33%.

following this federation most closely is the afc (asia) (15%). this confederation's quota is 9. the quota ratio is 9/48 = 18%.

caf (africa), meanwhile, got a 21% country quota with a 4 percent player quota. fine, let's say that's tolerable. after all, some of the countries participating from uefa have players of african origin.

representation of players of african origin in the national teams of uefa member countries:
france – 21
england – 15
netherlands – 14
switzerland – 11
belgium – 9
germany – 9
sweden – 6
portugal – 4
austria – 4
norway – 2
spain – 2
scotland – 1
czechia – 1
croatia – 0
bosnia and herzegovina – 0
turkey – 0

most senior player: craig gordon (43 years 160 days) - scotland
youngest player: gilberto mora (17 years 235 days) - mexico

managers:

countries sending the most coaches:

argentina (6): lionel scaloni (argentina), gustavo alfaro (paraguay), sebastian beccacece (ecuador), marcelo bielsa (uruguay), nestor lorenzo (colombia), mauricio pochettino (usa)

france (5): didier deschamps (france), sebastien desabre (democratic republic of congo), sabri lamouchi (tunisia), rudi garcia (belgium), sebastien migne (haiti)

spain (4): luis de la fuente (spain), thomas christiansen (panama), julen lopetegui (qatar), roberto martinez (portugal)

germany (3): julian nagelsmann (germany), ralf rangnick (austria), thomas tuchel (england)

italy, meanwhile, despite not taking part in the tournament, is again represented by 3 coaches: vincenzo montella (turkey), carlo ancelotti (brazil), fabio cannavaro (uzbekistan)

with the arena set up for the ufc match to be held on the white house lawn, image idiocracy can now be considered a prophecy. mike judge foresaw the future. his predictions came true 480 years early. the picture image that best describes the usa today might be this one. a fight with budlight ads is being organized on the white house lawn. it's hard to wrap your head around.

this entry contains spoilers:

--spoiler--
this is how you do comedy. i should say up front that, unlike what's been written here, i thoroughly love this show from its very first moment to its last second. in my opinion every single scene from start to finish, "the final joke" included, is perfectly attuned to the spirit of the whole thing and extremely creative, funny, and clever. the pace dips here and there, and it may look like it's departing from earlier seasons by its very nature, but in an ongoing organism, especially in something as merciless as comedy, there are ups and downs, that's normal; you can't please the viewer any other way, they'd get bored.

also, and this hasn't really been dwelt on, but i think the secret to its success comes from the traditionalism of its characters, their incredible knack for adapting despite being behind the times and naive, their que-sera attitude with the world going one way and the minaret the other, and the coolness they never lose despite their absurd monotony. and to pull this off, i adore the subtle, not-immediately-obvious details they pull off so masterfully: out of all the vampires we watch, main characters included, only laszlo shouts "bat!" to turn into a bat; colin robinson, who never misses a chance to feed off the tension in the room and thinks himself so sharp, cunning, and tremendously boring, is actually a low-level nerd, a modern-day renaissance man with knowledge on nearly every subject; nadja, who is essentially extremely good-natured, accommodating, and forward-thinking, gets treated like a naive little prude by the 4 men she shares her life with on so many matters, guillermo included, and she shrugs all of it off with patience and the kind of nonchalance you show children; nandor, who in any given situation is more of a simpleton and a bumbling fool than nearly everyone around him, yet again comes out of any situation victorious nearly every time, without lifting a finger, thanks to a bit of luck but mostly his surprising charisma... in the moments in question, even though nandor is actually the buffoon of the room himself, i'm also crazy about how he piles the blame onto someone else with that "fucking guy/gal!" exclamation he so often lets out at the end, and how the viewer ends up siding with him too. guillermo turning out to be van helsing is, i think, the most perfect plot twist in the history of the black screen. with its music choices, its collages, the comedy it injects straight into your veins before the story has even begun, the intro is also indisputably among the best in television history.

i could swear a turk who also knows the musical canon well consulted on this show, but i can't prove it. those interested in the subject will catch, as they keep watching, that "kapıldım gidiyorum" isn't the only work/reference used from turkish culture and history. also, take my dear nandor, with that look of his, and stick him in high school history textbooks as a janissary, a vizier, i don't know, a sultan. if a single soul comes out and questions "what's this guy doing here?!" then i don't know anything either.

there's a lot more to be said about it, but let's leave the rest to the perception capacity of whoever's watching. because this production, like i wrote in the entry at the link i gave at the start, is a work stuffed to the brim with countless subtle nods and references. even though it sometimes manages to make you laugh twice as hard, giving you a stomachache and cramping up your facial muscles, like someone else mentioned above, if your english is good enough i absolutely recommend watching this absurd comedy, which constitutes a tremendous supply to the reaction that has taken bodily form in our lands as random laughter, in its original language.

let me end with my favorite line from the show: "guillermo, is there something you haven't been telling us?" to be said with nandor's accent. bat!
--spoiler--

one of the most interesting statistics in soccer history is the number of goals lionel messi scored in a single calendar year over the course of his career.

in 2012, messi scored a total of 91 goals across his club and national team appearances. that number broke the record of 85 set earlier by gerd müller in 1972, and it's still regarded as one of the most impressive individual performances in soccer history.

the interesting part is that the year messi broke this record wasn't a world cup year or a copa america year, meaning this extraordinary number happened entirely within the rhythm of a normal season. while many forwards never reach 91 goals over their entire careers, messi pulled it off in a single year.

a magnificent country to travel through. the country where the renaissance, ancient rome, baroque architecture, opera, and a huge chunk of art itself were born. every single city has some important structure that's an absolute must-see. art just gushes out of this country. even the cities that seem the most insignificant have a ton of beautiful buildings worth seeing. take the simplest example, the city of parma is full of baroque churches tucked away in corners, and people don't even notice them, because there are so many gorgeous buildings in this country that folks have just gotten used to it and stopped paying attention, i guess. and yet even these overlooked works are insanely beautiful. the country's landscape is gorgeous too, it's a mediterranean country. the lakes, the mountains, the greenery... not everything is sunshine and roses, of course, it's got plenty of downsides too. incidents of theft, not being able to provide enough restoration for its structures, uncontrolled immigration, some poorly maintained streets, and so on and so forth. but despite all of this, italy is something else entirely.