Welcome to the home of Noah Brier. I'm the co-founder of Variance and general internet tinkerer. Most of my writing these days is happening over at Why is this interesting?, a daily email full of interesting stuff. This site has been around since 2004. Feel free to get in touch. Good places to get started are my Framework of the Day posts or my favorite books and podcasts. Get in touch.

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Sick with Economic Gloom

Sometimes I think I should just repost everything Jonah Lehrer writes because it’s all awesome and insightful. (Just subscribe to his blog, that’s probably easier.)

Anyhow, he had a good piece in the Dallas Morning News about what’s going on in your brain when you buy stuff. Though I’m generally pretty skeptical of any kind of neuromarketing stuff, I like what he has to say, especially this bit: “When times are tough, the emotional tug-of-war inside the brain is thrown out of whack, and consumers act like everything is overpriced. We’re so worried about the dismal economy that the reward areas of the brain are stifled.”

Crazy, huh? Basically the recession leaves us ill (or well, depending on who you ask), immune to the tricks of consumerism.

February 4, 2009