Whether we mean to or not, we spend every day rehearsing the person we’ll be next. This week, #TheEdit is about the small, repeated acts that shape who we become, at every stage of life.

• Religious scholars met with Anthropic. What they heard stunned them. Some left asking a far stranger question. Can you raise a machine to be good? – The New York Times
• What happens when we stop reading? Reading has been in decline across rich countries since the smartphone arrived – The Story Podcast by The Times
• How to define the fuzzy phases of life. When does middle age start? Nobody can quite agree, and that might be the point – The Atlantic
• Stoicism is not what you think. Where did the philosophy begin, what does its online revival get wrong, and can practising it can actually make us happier – The Spectator
• How struggle leads to satisfaction. Social scientist and happiness expert Arthur Brooks tells Andrew Huberman how struggle leads to satisfaction – Huberman Lab  
• The gap between knowing better and doing better, and how to close it. Why small, repeated habits beat the big weekend retreat, and why action comes before motivation – Big Think
• Nadja Skaljic: My life on purpose. Lawyer and systems thinker Nadja Skaljic talks about growing up through the siege of Sarajevo, systems thinking, and why every business is part of a much larger living system – The Beautiful Truth