Doing what you value as a life philosophy – an introduction to Valuism – part 1 in the Valuism sequence – what are intrinsic values and why do they matter?

February 14, 2023

By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace This is the first of five posts in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the second, third, fourth, and fifth parts. Many of us struggle at times to know what to do. We are surrounded by conflicting advice about how to live our lives - from our parents, peers, and communities, from ancient philosophers, and from modern gurus and intellectuals. Faced with these conflicting opinions and a limited amount of time u...

What I Learned From One Of The Most Effortful Studies On Behavior Change Ever Conducted

January 13, 2023

I’d like to tell you about one of the biggest and most effortful studies on behavior change ever conducted and its strange findings (that may not even be obvious if you read the paper – I only realized its implications on my 2nd reading!) Let’s begin: The study had 61,000 participants, all with gym memberships. 30 scientists worked in small teams to develop interventions, each aiming to increase gym attendance over 4-weeks. This resulted in 53 interventions to test. A promising setup to figu...

Victims and Perpetrators Of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault: Gender Differences and Rates Of Victimization and Perpetration

May 5, 2021

This piece was first written in 2017, and first appeared on my website on April 29, 2026. This essay is one in a series examining sexual harassment and assault. Sexual harassment and assault occur appallingly often. We have an absurdly long way to go as a society to correct this problem. To make progress on persistent problems, as this one clearly is, it’s often helpful to try to deeply understand the forces that drive and maintain the problem. As a small step in that direction, I ran...

Tricks for Getting Started on a Project When You’re Stuck

April 19, 2021

If you ever have trouble starting on something that's important or find yourself procrastinating on a project, you may find it useful to notice what you feel at that moment and design your approach based on it. Here is a list of "feeling-based" strategies that may help you get started on what you have trouble getting yourself to do: If you are feeling: 1. unsure of where to start-> think of three really small, simple, actionable steps that would constitute a small amount of progress...

The Reciprocation Problem

December 18, 2020

The "reciprocation problem": a mathematical tragedy in relationships regarding how often people should ask each other to hang out The Setup Person X and person Y are friends (or lovers or close work colleagues or whatever). Person X and Person Y happen to both feel the same way about each other (i.e., equal amounts of interest, affection, lust, respect, etc.)Person X's ideal is to make plans with person Y every two weeks, whereas person Y (who has a lower amount of free time, or less need...

Things They Didn’t Say

November 17, 2020

They didn't say these things, but I would have appreciated it if they had: The best way to predict the future is to [combine multiple forecasting methods]. Be the [role model of rationality] you want to see in the world. Believe you can and you’re [<1% of the] way there [, but if you don’t believe you can, then you’ve already lost]. Change your thoughts and you change [your experience of] the world. Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life [unless you...

Thought Experiments: Very Valuable, But Also Tricky

November 10, 2020

Thought experiments are a great way to understand yourself better, and to make explicit what is normally implicit. Ex: “If you must choose between letting a random baby or elderly person die, which would you choose?” But thought experiments also suffer from problems: 1. It can be difficult to accurately imagine a world that incorporates the stipulations of the thought experiment. Ex: “Suppose that you suddenly stopped experiencing any fear and any empathy - what would you change first...

Don’t Over-Rely On One Type of Evidence

November 8, 2020

Understanding the world well involves synthesizing evidence from disparate sources: 1. Direct experience: if you only believe what you directly witness, you’ll greatly underestimate the diversity of cultures, and literally think the earth is flat. 2. Knowledgeable authority: if you believe whatever your community’s trusted authorities say, then if you were born in a cult you’ll still be in it, and if your authorities become corrupt, they’ll exploit you. 3. Valid reason: if you believe ...

What is the deal with IQ?

October 20, 2020

Many studies (including our report) have investigated whether IQ predicts anything. The answer is that it does predict a bunch of things. But what does IQ actually measure? There are a surprisingly large number of proposed answers to this question. Below I list all the different theories and interpretations of IQ that I'm aware of. Theory 1: Multiple Intelligences IQ tests measure just a limited part of intelligence while missing (or at least mostly missing) other important parts of in...

Ten Skills Our Civilization Needs

October 10, 2020

Here are ten skills I believe our civilization needs, if we hope to create an amazing world instead of a dumpster fire. 1. Evidence evaluation Converging on a valid consensus about what’s true based on evidence/argument (e.g., being able to converge as a society on questions like "climate change real, how bad will it get if we don't act, and how quickly?"). 2. Coordination Developing and applying mechanisms to avoid collective action problems (e.g., working to make it in nobody’s in...