Aaron Balick 🍉
@aaronbalick.com
Leading voice on how tech & culture shape the psyche. Psychotherapist | Consultant | Psych writer at GQ | Keynote speaker | Author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking | aaronbalick.com
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Aaron Balick 🍉
@aaronbalick.com
· Oct 8
Why the world needs more imposter syndrome, not less
Feel inadequate or out of your depth? Believe or not, it's usually a good sign. Meanwhile people incapable of doubting themselves are wreaking havoc in the world
www.gq-magazine.co.uk
Why the world needs more imposter syndrome, not less.
My latest for GQ:
www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/why-...
My latest for GQ:
www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/why-...
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
People are forming emotional bonds with AI faster than therapists, clinicians, and policymakers can keep up. AI chatbots are extraordinarily good at baiting the deeply ingrained human need to connect and be understood.
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
AI, Therapy, and the Digitally Extended Self: A Comprehensive Psychodynamic Exploration
Artificial intelligence is reshaping mental health, intimacy, and the very idea of what it means to relate to others. This is a consolidation and expansion of my Substack series on AI and Mental Healt...
www.aaronbalick.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:40 PM
People are forming emotional bonds with AI faster than therapists, clinicians, and policymakers can keep up. AI chatbots are extraordinarily good at baiting the deeply ingrained human need to connect and be understood.
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
People are forming emotional bonds with AI faster than therapists, clinicians, and policymakers can keep up. AI chatbots are extraordinarily good at baiting the deeply ingrained human need to connect and be understood.
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
AI, Therapy, and the Digitally Extended Self: A Comprehensive Psychodynamic Exploration
Artificial intelligence is reshaping mental health, intimacy, and the very idea of what it means to relate to others. This is a consolidation and expansion of my Substack series on AI and Mental Healt...
www.aaronbalick.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:40 PM
People are forming emotional bonds with AI faster than therapists, clinicians, and policymakers can keep up. AI chatbots are extraordinarily good at baiting the deeply ingrained human need to connect and be understood.
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
www.aaronbalick.com/post/ai-ther...
We all tend to identify with our beliefs. It enhances the ego’s sense of coherence.
It’s also one of the chief causes of polarisation and social discord.
We could all do with holding our beliefs a more lightly.
Letting a belief go my undermine your ego, but it will also broaden your Self.
It’s also one of the chief causes of polarisation and social discord.
We could all do with holding our beliefs a more lightly.
Letting a belief go my undermine your ego, but it will also broaden your Self.
November 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
We all tend to identify with our beliefs. It enhances the ego’s sense of coherence.
It’s also one of the chief causes of polarisation and social discord.
We could all do with holding our beliefs a more lightly.
Letting a belief go my undermine your ego, but it will also broaden your Self.
It’s also one of the chief causes of polarisation and social discord.
We could all do with holding our beliefs a more lightly.
Letting a belief go my undermine your ego, but it will also broaden your Self.
I really do believe in karma.
Not in the magical sense, nor in the sense that the universe tots up good and bad deeds like a cosmic Father Christmas.
But in the sense that actions beget consequences. Maybe be not straight away, and maybe not in the way you might expect - but consequences come.
Not in the magical sense, nor in the sense that the universe tots up good and bad deeds like a cosmic Father Christmas.
But in the sense that actions beget consequences. Maybe be not straight away, and maybe not in the way you might expect - but consequences come.
November 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I really do believe in karma.
Not in the magical sense, nor in the sense that the universe tots up good and bad deeds like a cosmic Father Christmas.
But in the sense that actions beget consequences. Maybe be not straight away, and maybe not in the way you might expect - but consequences come.
Not in the magical sense, nor in the sense that the universe tots up good and bad deeds like a cosmic Father Christmas.
But in the sense that actions beget consequences. Maybe be not straight away, and maybe not in the way you might expect - but consequences come.
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Just did my first cold plunge. 10% exhilarating 90% hateful.
November 14, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Just did my first cold plunge. 10% exhilarating 90% hateful.
🔊 Listen Now: Ethan Hawke On The Role That Pushed Him To His Limit
Fresh Air on NPR One | 44:11
one.npr.org
November 13, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I feel so beautifully emotionally manipulated by The Celebrity Traitors. They deserve every tear they got out of me (several) in that wonderful, utterly suspenseful and magnificently orchestrated finale.
(one day late and mercifully unspoiled)
(one day late and mercifully unspoiled)
November 7, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I feel so beautifully emotionally manipulated by The Celebrity Traitors. They deserve every tear they got out of me (several) in that wonderful, utterly suspenseful and magnificently orchestrated finale.
(one day late and mercifully unspoiled)
(one day late and mercifully unspoiled)
I’ll never forget the day I was an early career academic at a big conference on higher education. It was in a giant ballroom
I was volunteered to a white board, was given a marker, and was asked to write “curriculum” at the top.
And I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to spell it.
I was volunteered to a white board, was given a marker, and was asked to write “curriculum” at the top.
And I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to spell it.
November 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
I’ll never forget the day I was an early career academic at a big conference on higher education. It was in a giant ballroom
I was volunteered to a white board, was given a marker, and was asked to write “curriculum” at the top.
And I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to spell it.
I was volunteered to a white board, was given a marker, and was asked to write “curriculum” at the top.
And I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to spell it.
“It’s not the hope that kills you. It’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you, that kills you.”
- Jackson Lamb #slowhorses
- Jackson Lamb #slowhorses
November 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
“It’s not the hope that kills you. It’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you, that kills you.”
- Jackson Lamb #slowhorses
- Jackson Lamb #slowhorses
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
12 books to help with anxiety, stress, and burnout. Including my own “Little Book of Calm”!
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
12 books to help with anxiety, burnout and stress
Feeling frazzled? These stress management books offer practical advice to help you relax, unwind and take back control from anxiety.
www.penguin.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 2:28 PM
12 books to help with anxiety, stress, and burnout. Including my own “Little Book of Calm”!
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
12 books to help with anxiety, stress, and burnout. Including my own “Little Book of Calm”!
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
12 books to help with anxiety, burnout and stress
Feeling frazzled? These stress management books offer practical advice to help you relax, unwind and take back control from anxiety.
www.penguin.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 2:28 PM
12 books to help with anxiety, stress, and burnout. Including my own “Little Book of Calm”!
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art...
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
#traitors really is brilliant for observing human psychology - faulty heuristics - particularly how sure we are of something that we’re completely wrong about.
October 30, 2025 at 8:13 PM
#traitors really is brilliant for observing human psychology - faulty heuristics - particularly how sure we are of something that we’re completely wrong about.
I miss the days when “lowest common denominator” was simply a mathematical term.
October 27, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I miss the days when “lowest common denominator” was simply a mathematical term.
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
Distinguishing the signal from the noise is a key life skill.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
October 25, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Distinguishing the signal from the noise is a key life skill.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
Distinguishing the signal from the noise is a key life skill.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
October 25, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Distinguishing the signal from the noise is a key life skill.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
Contemporary life is designed to facilitate the opposite.
Trump’s too dumb to be Machiavellian and the people around him are too dumb to need him to be.
October 24, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Trump’s too dumb to be Machiavellian and the people around him are too dumb to need him to be.
The great irony is that the wisest investment my grandmother made for all the same reasons was when she left Ukraine for America to escape the pogroms. Processed at Ellis Island. She loved America: my dad’s bar-mitzvah was draped in American flags. She died in 1995. I’m glad she missed the decline.
It appears that the wisest investment for my mental and physical health, general wellbeing, financial security, and quality of life - was leaving the USA in 1994.
Not like you could have guessed it at the time.
Not like you could have guessed it at the time.
October 23, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The great irony is that the wisest investment my grandmother made for all the same reasons was when she left Ukraine for America to escape the pogroms. Processed at Ellis Island. She loved America: my dad’s bar-mitzvah was draped in American flags. She died in 1995. I’m glad she missed the decline.
It appears that the wisest investment for my mental and physical health, general wellbeing, financial security, and quality of life - was leaving the USA in 1994.
Not like you could have guessed it at the time.
Not like you could have guessed it at the time.
October 23, 2025 at 7:28 PM
It appears that the wisest investment for my mental and physical health, general wellbeing, financial security, and quality of life - was leaving the USA in 1994.
Not like you could have guessed it at the time.
Not like you could have guessed it at the time.
Name the best examples of what therapy actually looks like as portrayed in film or television :
October 23, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Name the best examples of what therapy actually looks like as portrayed in film or television :
Nobody in their right mind savours a long run on a cold, windy, and wet London November morning. But we’ll do it for the World AIDS Day RED RUN 2025.
I’m running in support of pocket-charity PrEPster (info in link) – and I’d love your support!
www.justgiving.com/page/dr-aaro...
I’m running in support of pocket-charity PrEPster (info in link) – and I’d love your support!
www.justgiving.com/page/dr-aaro...
2025 World AIDS Day RED RUN - PrEPster
Help Aaron Balick raise money to support Positive East
www.justgiving.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Nobody in their right mind savours a long run on a cold, windy, and wet London November morning. But we’ll do it for the World AIDS Day RED RUN 2025.
I’m running in support of pocket-charity PrEPster (info in link) – and I’d love your support!
www.justgiving.com/page/dr-aaro...
I’m running in support of pocket-charity PrEPster (info in link) – and I’d love your support!
www.justgiving.com/page/dr-aaro...
The school bully was always the bad guy. But school bullies can’t bully on their own.
First they need their sycophants, then they need bystanders. Take either away, and the bully becomes powerless.
Nobody would be mad enough to give them a political party and an acquiescent media, surely.
First they need their sycophants, then they need bystanders. Take either away, and the bully becomes powerless.
Nobody would be mad enough to give them a political party and an acquiescent media, surely.
October 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The school bully was always the bad guy. But school bullies can’t bully on their own.
First they need their sycophants, then they need bystanders. Take either away, and the bully becomes powerless.
Nobody would be mad enough to give them a political party and an acquiescent media, surely.
First they need their sycophants, then they need bystanders. Take either away, and the bully becomes powerless.
Nobody would be mad enough to give them a political party and an acquiescent media, surely.
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉
This conversation between @andrewhuberman.bsky.social and @stevenpressfield.bsky.social is so interesting and engaging - also inspiring and very useful too. It pushed and challenged my own thinking on resistance & success and I’ll probably listen again. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...
How to Overcome Inner Resistance | Steven Pressfield
Podcast Episode · Huberman Lab · 20/10/2025 · 2h 15m
podcasts.apple.com
October 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM
This conversation between @andrewhuberman.bsky.social and @stevenpressfield.bsky.social is so interesting and engaging - also inspiring and very useful too. It pushed and challenged my own thinking on resistance & success and I’ll probably listen again. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...