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Do You Feel Ashamed of Your Bad Attitude?

What if you tried to enjoy it instead?

Heather Havrilesky
May 07, 2026
∙ Paid
Head of a Woman No. 5. Portrait of Dora Maar (1939), Pablo Picasso

Most of us have been trained to minimize our negative reactions to the world, stifle our criticism, mute our irritations, play down our frustrations. As kids we were trained not to grumble or roll our eyes or talk back. As teenagers, we were told we had “an attitude problem” if we were sk…

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