Some topics I discuss in this third installment of Rob Henderson’s Office Hours:

* There’s a viral story about some guy named Harry Sisson who convinced 11 women to send him nudes. Predictably, reactions are split along gender lines. It’s reminding me of the West Elm Caleb drama and last year’s Andrew Huberman saga.

* A lot of guys are defending this guy using evolutionary logic—"men are wired to sleep around"—but conveniently ignoring that evolution also favors women shaming men for it.

* Speaking of evolutionary logic, every few months, Leonardo DiCaprio trends for dating a different young woman. And every time, men defend him while women roll their eyes. But both reactions make perfect evolutionary sense.

* Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel-winning psychologist, chose assisted suicide last year at age 90—he made a calculated decision to exit on his own terms.

* Annie Duke, the professional poker player-turned-psychologist, has this great line: "Quitting on time feels like quitting too early." Did Kahneman “quit” at the right moment? The ethics of assisted suicide come with a weird paradox—if you’re mentally sharp, it feels too soon. But if you’re in decline, people say you’re not competent enough to choose. Where’s the line?

* Revisiting Thinking, Fast and Slow—one of the most influential books on human psychology—and reflecting on how we default to personal anecdotes over statistics. Kahneman’s "planning fallacy" is a perfect example: we always think we are the exception—when the data suggests otherwise.

* Recapping my recent book event with Dr. Drew at the Manhattan Institute—if you had told 17-year-old me I’d be sharing a stage with him, that to me would have been the equivalent of you telling me I’d be the first astronaut on Mars. Surreal. If you missed the event we did, don’t worry—the recording is coming soon.

* Growing up, the radio show Loveline was one of the few positive influences in my life. Dr. Drew spent years speaking with troubled teens on the air, so when he read my book, he got it instantly.

* Why shorter public talks require more preparation than longer talks.

* Discussing whether books are “outdated,” as I recently heard a tech executive declare at a conference.

* Some say ignoring the news is a luxury, but the data says otherwise: the wealthiest and most educated consume the most political news.

* The most surprising political shift of 2024. Overall, white voters didn't shift at all in their voting preferences from 2016 to 2024, while nonwhite voters all shifted to the Republican side.

* Recently attended a conference where a mainstream media reporter gave the most honest breakdown of why Democrats lost. I share my thoughts on his explanation.

* Explaining why I have no current plans to launch a podcast

* Some thoughts on imposter syndrome, and why it’s most common in intellectual and creative fields

* If you knew a book was half-written by AI, would you still want to read it? I wouldn’t.

* How classical liberals became “right-wing” – you can be a lifelong liberal who has never voted for a Republican in your life, but in academia, if you support free speech and challenge identity politics, you get labeled a conservative.

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Why Imposter Syndrome Is Most Common in Intellectual and Creative Fields

Rob Henderson's Office Hours (private feed for [email protected])

Why Imposter Syndrome Is Most Common in Intellectual and Creative Fields