The FIRE Framework: deciding when to trust your gut

April 7, 2019

Here’s a link to a recording of me giving a talk about this topic in 2019. The idea that you should "just trust your gut" - that is, make many life decisions solely based on intuition (as opposed to based on reflection) - is obviously very popular. But I think that there are pretty much only four types of situations where we're best off relying on intuition alone: when a decision is Fast, Irrelevant, Repetitious, or Evolutionary (FIRE for short). Case 1: Fast decisionsThere is no cho...

The “seven realms of truth” framework

March 25, 2019

Here’s a framework I use to think more clearly about complex debates and philosophical questions about whether something is “true,” “exists,” and is “real” (e.g., “is this painting art?”, “is everything subjective?” and “is morality real?”). I find that thinking in terms of this framework can make it easier to figure out what’s being claimed and to clarify what I myself believe. The framework divides things that are sometimes claimed to be “true,” or that we might say “exist,” into seven dif...

My Top-10 Weakly-Held Policy Perspectives

February 2, 2019

Written: February 2, 2019 | Released: June 27, 2021 Change my mind! Below are my very tentative, weakly held perspectives on ten very complex policy topics. If you have strong evidence or solid arguments against (or for) any of these viewpoints, I'd be really interested to know. Please post in the comments, referencing which topic you are referring to (e.g. "#1 - Heath insurance", "#5 - Death penalty", etc.). --- A few notes: I'm assuming the constraint that proposed policies are not a...

Meaningful Hypothetical Traditions

December 27, 2018

There is a vast number of hypothetical traditions that could be practiced, compared to the few that actually are. If you were inventing a new tradition that you and millions of others would practice one day each year for many years to come, and you wanted it to produce positive effects on the participants, what would your new tradition be? Below are a few ideas for hypothetical traditions. I’m sure some would dislike each of these, but I’m hoping some of them would add net value if actually ...

Computer Keyboard Commands That Actually Save Time

November 24, 2018

Many of us spend a lot of our time at our computers. Yet how efficiently do we really use them? Memorizing the most useful keyboard commands might save you minutes a day. Here are some of the most useful ones I've found: Switch windows within a single application (Command-` on Mac)Paste while using the formatting of the document you're pasting into (Command-Option-Shift-V on Mac)Skip to next/previous email in the Gmail email client (k and j once you turn on Gmail key commands)Show desktop (F...

The Relationship Between Personality and Life Satisfaction

November 16, 2018

What's the relationship between personality and life satisfaction? We took a stab at figuring it out! We conducted a study of 999 people in the United States; recruited through our study platform at Positly.com. We looked for a correlation between 18 different personality traits (each trait being assessed with two questions) and life satisfaction. We examined the association each trait had with scores on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (a 5 question scale by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Griffi...

Non-Fiction That’s Worth Reading

November 15, 2018

Are you looking for a good non-fiction book to read? Yesterday I asked people to share one of the best non-fiction books they've ever read, that may be lesser-known. The request yielded 102 unique recommendations, only 18% of which were familiar to me. Incidentally, there was very little overlap between this list and Time Magazine's "All-Time 100 Best Non-Fiction Books" (found here: http://bit.ly/2qOzZrh), there appear to be ~5 books in common. As a personal frame of reference for...

Do The Findings Of A Study Conducted In One Place Generalize To Other Places?

July 19, 2018

Do the results of studies generalize to new situations? For instance, suppose a study is conducted on a technique or intervention (e.g., providing health education to parents) and the study finds it to be effective for a particular outcome (e.g., improving the health of children). When the next study is conducted on (what appears to be) the same intervention and outcome, should we expect that study to ALSO find the intervention to be effective? There are a lot of reasons why it may NOT: ...

Minimizing Cognitive Loads

April 27, 2018

Written: April 27, 2018 | Released: June 27, 2021 It seems easy to underestimate the extent to which one "cognitive load" might sap your capacity for others. This underestimation could be having detrimental effects you aren't aware of. For instance, if you are trying to have a deep and important conversation in a noisy and distracting environment, it may seem that it's merely hard to hear. But, it's possible that the effort you expend trying to understand the other person's words causes f...

What If You HAD To Do It?

April 26, 2018

A thought experiment about what you'd be truly capable of doing, if you had no choice: Think of something you value that: A. Multiple other people you know are capable of achieving, but that… B. You assume you would not be capable of achieving, even though… C. You have never actually tried to do this thing well before. Now, suppose for a moment that you have no choice but to do the thing. That is, everything you care about in the world will be destroyed if you do not achieve it i...