Glossary
Glossary of terms
Clear explanations of the terms we use across our articles - psychology, finance, health, technology and self-development.
Glossary
- Active listening
- A way of listening focused on understanding the other person rather than preparing your reply: you clarify, ask follow-ups and reflect back what you heard.
- Anhedonia
- The loss of the ability to feel pleasure from things you used to enjoy. A core sign of depression, not just a low mood.
- Artificial intelligence
- The ability of computer systems to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence - learning, reasoning, pattern recognition.
- Attention residue
- The portion of your attention that stays stuck on the previous task after you switch. It is why multitasking degrades the quality of every task involved.
- Burnout
- Exhaustion from chronic workplace stress that was never successfully managed. It shows up as depletion, mental distance from the job and a sense of no longer coping.
- Circadian rhythm
- The body's internal roughly 24-hour clock that governs sleep, body temperature and hormones. It is synchronized primarily by daylight.
- Cognitive bias
- A systematic error in thinking: the mind departs from the accurate answer not at random but in a predictable direction, and does it the same way every time.
- Compound effect
- The principle that small, consistent actions produce disproportionately large results over time - true for both money and habits.
- Compound interest
- Interest calculated on both the initial amount and the interest accumulated from previous periods.
- Confirmation bias
- The tendency to notice and remember information that confirms your existing beliefs, while ignoring evidence that contradicts them.
- Cortisol
- The stress hormone that helps you mobilize in the moment. The problem is not cortisol itself but chronically elevated levels of it.
- Deep work
- Focused, distraction-free work on a cognitively demanding task. Unlike mere busyness, it produces results that are hard to replicate.
- Digital detox
- A deliberate break from devices and social media. The point is not rejecting technology but regaining control over your attention.
- Dopamine loop
- A closed cycle of cue, action and reward that keeps you scrolling: the brain anticipates the reward more strongly than it enjoys it, so it reaches for the next hit.
- Emergency fund
- Money set aside to cover several months of ordinary expenses and reachable the same day. Its job is not to earn but to stop you selling assets or taking on debt at the worst possible moment.
- Emotional intelligence
- The ability to recognize, understand and manage your own emotions, and to understand the emotions of others.
- Growth mindset
- The belief that abilities develop through effort and practice rather than being fixed at birth. It shapes how a person responds to failure.
- Imposter syndrome
- A persistent feeling that your success is undeserved and you are about to be exposed, despite objective achievements and proven competence.
- Inflation
- The gradual loss of money's purchasing power: the same amount buys less a year later. This is why cash under the mattress slowly loses value.
- Lifestyle inflation
- Spending rising in step with income: your salary grew, but your savings did not, because your standard of living grew too.
- Mindfulness
- The practice of being fully present in the moment, without judgment or excessive reaction to thoughts and feelings.
- Personal boundaries
- The limits you set in relationships: what you are willing to accept and what you are not. The absence of them is a major driver of emotional exhaustion.
- Placebo effect
- A genuine improvement produced by a treatment with no active ingredient, driven by expectation. This is exactly why studies need a control group.
- Procrastination
- Voluntarily delaying something you know the delay will cost you. What is being postponed is not the work but the unpleasant feeling the work produces.
- Savings rate
- The share of your income that you set aside. It is this figure, not the size of your salary, that determines how fast your capital grows.