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The Edit: The Self Persists
The Edit

The Edit: The Self Persists

Our weekly round up of the best articles, podcasts and videos focusing on purpose in life, work and the world.

2 minute read

29th May 2026

You can track everything and still miss yourself entirely. This week’s #TheEdit is about what can’t be measured, optimised, or seen – and why that might be exactly where meaning lives.  

  • What if we let AI run the world? Researchers let AI models run a simulated society. Claude was the safest; and Grok committed 180 crimes and went extinct within 4 days – Fortune 
  • Sites unseen: What’s revealed by traveling with the blind. How an extraordinary trip to India changed one photographer’s perspective on travel – NYT The Daily  
  • Optimisation has no soul. Yes, optimise your sleep, morning routine, inbox, attention span, gut bacteria. No, you cannot optimise your way to a deep self – Beautiful Minds 
  • Why rest alone doesn’t restore energy. Your energy doesn’t work like a battery, and treating it that way may be why you still feel tired even after a break – Big Think 
  • Why you should (almost) always look on the bright side of life. The benefits, and dangers, of optimism – The Economist   
  • Michael Pollan: The mystery of consciousness. Do sentience, feeling, thought, or a sense of self amount to consciousness? Does it emerge from inside us? Or is it a force beyond us, in which we partake? – On Being 
  • How to be happy with what you have. Combat shame – and avoid the trap of comparison – The Beautiful Truth  

“No single viewpoint, no single impression of a place captures the full picture.”

Andy Isaacson

Header artwork: Pieter de Hooch, Interior with a Young Couple, ca. 1662–65