Distracted by Difference

Musings on Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging

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Michael Sobocinski

The 2,500-Year-Old Argument About What's Real

Two ancient Greek philosophers disagreed about whether reality is fundamentally one thing or many — and the argument never actually got resolved. Here's why it still matters.

Photo by Klemen Vrankar on Unsplash

Michael Sobocinski

The Buffer

Independent research traditions — psychology, philosophy, attachment science, and neuroscience — converge on a single claim: death anxiety is isolation in disguise.

Michael Sobocinski

Death Anxiety Is Not About Death

There's a counterintuitive truth buried in existential psychology: when we say someone suffers from death anxiety, we're often naming the wrong problem. The anxiety isn't primarily about dying. It's about what mortality reveals—and what we fear we lack when we face it. This distinction matters because if we misname the problem, we miss the solution. For decades, therapists assumed death anxiety worked like other fears: if you think about death too much, you get anxious. The fix seemed obviou

Michael Sobocinski

Why I'm Writing This Book

On our wounded children, a collapsing culture, and a conviction that they are the same problem.

Latest Stories

Michael Sobocinski

The 2,500-Year-Old Argument About What's Real

Two ancient Greek philosophers disagreed about whether reality is fundamentally one thing or many — and the argument never actually got resolved. Here's why it still matters.

Photo by Klemen Vrankar on Unsplash

Michael Sobocinski

The Buffer

Independent research traditions — psychology, philosophy, attachment science, and neuroscience — converge on a single claim: death anxiety is isolation in disguise.

Michael Sobocinski

Death Anxiety Is Not About Death

There's a counterintuitive truth buried in existential psychology: when we say someone suffers from death anxiety, we're often naming the wrong problem. The anxiety isn't primarily about dying. It's about what mortality reveals—and what we fear we lack when we face it. This distinction matters because if we misname the problem, we miss the solution. For decades, therapists assumed death anxiety worked like other fears: if you think about death too much, you get anxious. The fix seemed obviou

Michael Sobocinski

Why I'm Writing This Book

On our wounded children, a collapsing culture, and a conviction that they are the same problem.

Michael Sobocinski

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