I had a little back and forth in the comment section on one of my recent podcast episodes with my friend Alex Knight (ARK3). I thought I’d reproduce it here in all it’s glory.
Tag: knowledge
Convenience vs. Social Desirability Bias
Convenience has a massive effect on your behavior. You rarely shop in your favorite store, eat in your favorite restaurant, or visit your favorite place. Why not? Because doing so is typically inconvenient. They’re too far away, or not open at the right hours, so you settle for second-best or third-best or tenth-best. You usually don’t switch your cell phone company, your streaming service, or your credit card just because a better option comes along. Why not? Because switching is not convenient. Students even pass up financial aid because they don’t feel like filling out the paperwork. Why not? You guessed it: Because paperwork is inconvenient.
Epistemic Humility and Confidence
I don’t have to have solid true/false answers to everything. Nor do I need to pretend such answers don’t exist. I can approach what I know directly with high probability and lower it with each step beyond experience.
The “Democratic Centralism” of COVID
The anonymous author of the satirical “Homeless Camping in Austin: A Modest Proposal” has also sent me this more serious guest post. The title is mine. “Democratic centralism,” you may recall, is the Leninist practice of demanding strict loyalty to a party line after a (usually perfunctory) debate. Printed with the author’s permission.
Call It Sour Grapes
I got my Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1997. Twenty-three years after graduation, I remain a professor at a mid-ranked school. The odds that I’ll ever get a job at a top-20 department look awfully low. How do I feel about this situation? The socially approved response, at least within social science, is to […]
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Cambridge Study: Children’s Mental Health Has Deteriorated ‘Substantially’ During Lockdown
The new University of Cambridge paper is the first longitudinal study to trace the mental health effects of lockdowns and social isolation on younger children.
COVID-19 Lockdowns: Liberty and Science
The Chinese Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit American shores — officially, anyway, there is significant evidence that it arrived earlier — in late January 2020. The American public was then told that a two-week shutdown of the economy would “flatten the curve,” relieving the pressure on hospital intensive care units and saving lives in the long run. The average American, including conservatives,…
Diet Pills and Persistent Error in Health and Science
Earlier this year, I was doing a deep dive into virology. Coincidentally, this was before Covid, in effort to solve my own health-related problems and mysteries. I had the same experience I’ve had when I went deeper into any field. A realization that nobody in the field knows what the hell is going on.
Brenden’s Journey, MasterTalk, Knowledge, & Personal Development (1h10m) – Episode 429
Episode 429 welcomes Brenden Kumarasamy to the podcast to chat with Skyler on the following topics: his YouTube channel “MasterTalk”; living in Montreal, Canada; Stoicism and sphere of control; older kids still living at home; parenting and kids leaving the nest; knowledge and truth; religion and the afterlife; his favorite anime “Death Note”; collecting stories and trying to live a mistake free life; his top 3 podcasts: “Akimbo” by Seth Godin, “The School of Greatness” by Lewis Howes, and “Impact Theory” by Tom Bilyeu; Warrent Buffet’s focus framework; the value of attending personal development conferences; his book recommendation: Thirst by Scott Harrison; and more
Dominating and Bullying
Government officials, who purport to know what is good for us better than we do, are rarely content simply to advise us of this superior knowledge and recommend that we act in its light.