How I Became The Grinch: A fictional short-short story

The Favorite of My 2025 Tweets.

An Arguer: A short-short story

Surviving and Maybe Thriving as a Contrarian

Some people grew up in a family that valued conformity. Other families venerated rebellion or at least making the case for a contrarian position: “Well, on the one hand X, but on the other hand, Y.”

Similarly, in some schools and colleges, students are pretty much expected to be conformist, to spout the orthodoxy. Perhaps you recall being tempted to make comments and write essays that comport with the teacher’s or professor’s bias. The tendency to reward conformity extends into adulthood: often in the workplace as well as in relationships.

It’s easier to go through life as a conformist. By definition, more people will agree with you. That both feels good and makes you more likely to make friends and to get ahead in your career.

But what if you tend to be contrarian? It is for those who are leading that more difficult life that my Psychology Today article today offers thoughts.

Poems Psychological, Part 2

Recently, I posted six of the 100 of my articles that are published on AllPoetry.com. 

In honor of National Poetry Month, as my PsychologyToday.com contribution today, I offer seven more. I've selected those with practical but unconventional takeaways.

Give and Take with Adam Grant, Top Contrarian Self-Help Expert

Adam Grant is the youngest tenured professor at Penn/Wharton and has been rated its best teacher for four years in a row, Also, he writes regularly on work and psychology for the New York Times.

In February his new book will be published, Originals: How non-conformists move the world. The publisher sent me an advance copy.

In the book, Grant forwards a number of contra-intuitive recommendations. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer few of those, followed by my reactions.