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...

Understanding the Scope of Human Morality

April 18, 2018

Written: April 18, 2018 | Released: June 27, 2021 What is the scope of morality? If we look across cultures (including micro-cultures that exist within other cultures), there is a vast number of things that people view as immoral. However, if you eliminate those that are only viewed as immoral because they are believed to lead to other things viewed as bad, the list becomes a lot smaller. So, what are those things that at least some human cultures view as inherently immoral, that is, a...

What Is The Range Of What We Humans Find Immoral?

April 18, 2018

If we look across cultures (including micro-cultures that exist within other cultures), there are a huge number of things that people view as immoral. However, if you eliminate those that are only viewed as immoral because they are believed to lead to other things viewed as bad, the list becomes a lot smaller. So, what are those things that at least some human cultures view as INHERENTLY immoral, that is, acts they would still think of as immoral even if no other consequences of that behavio...

Predictors of Extreme Success

April 16, 2018

What traits, behaviors, or characteristics of a person are the best predictors of whether they achieve extremely high levels of success in their life? For instance, those who have: created billion-dollar companies with huge influence (e.g., Elon Musk)made multiple revolutionary scientific advances (e.g., Einstein)achieved absurdly high levels of skill at sports (e.g., Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who set the long-standing world record in the seven-event Olympic sport "Heptathlon")reached extraordin...

A Paradoxical Puzzle For Ethical Utilitarians

April 7, 2018

A utilitarian blinks. When his eyes open a split second later, he’s astounded to discover that he’s in an entirely different place. Omega stands in front of him. “I’ve brought you here to play a game,” Omega says. “The well-being of humanity depends on your choices, so pay very close attention. You start with 100 credits.” A screen suddenly appears with the number 100 on it. “To play the game,” Omega continues, “just think of some number of credits that you’d like to bet during the next r...

How to Identify ‘Hot Topics’ in Various Fields of Study

April 6, 2018

Ever wonder what the biggest topics are in academic Artificial Intelligence research, or Gender Studies, or Decision Science, or Dental Hygiene research? Want to figure out whether an academic discipline is actually valuable to society, or see some of the most important insights a field has generated in the last five years? Here's my (relatively) easy method for getting a sense of what an academic discipline has been "thinking about" by quickly examining the top two most cited papers from fi...

There are at least 8 different ways to interpret the Constitution

March 20, 2018

Is gun ownership a constitutional right? What about a “right to privacy” that makes it unconstitutional to ban birth control? And can the federal government really use the power to regulate “commerce among the several states” to make laws banning certain plants in cases when they are grown only for private use? I know of 8 approaches to interpreting the U.S. Constitution (and its amendments). None is obviously correct; some are more popular than others, but all are, in some unsatisfying sens...

The Many Models for Depression

February 28, 2018

People often argue whether depression is, or is not, caused by a "chemical imbalance". Much of what happens in our brains is chemical, why would depression not be? If by "imbalance" we happen to mean "a state of brain chemicals that the patient doesn't want", as opposed to, say, some specific theory that is now discredited like "not enough serotonin" (i.e., the low serotonin myth), then depression can reasonably be thought of as a "chemical imbalance". Disagreement about whether depressi...

Anonymized Responses to Taboo Questions – A Social Experiment

February 14, 2018

If you run a meeting group or like to host events, you may want to try out my event format, "Anonymous Answers to Anonymous Questions," which allows attendees to see each other's (anonymous) answers to controversial, taboo, embarrassing, uncomfortable and rarely asked questions, and then discuss them as a group to discover what they can learn. I've included the details of the event format below, including materials you can use to throw your own version of it. Important Note: this event fo...