You're on a mountain range, trying to reach the highest mountain peak you're capable of reaching. That peak reflects the total sum of your achievements according to your intrinsic values. This may include, for instance, your happiness, the happiness of your loved ones, your positive impact on the world, living virtuously, achieving your deeply meaningful goals, and so on. Unfortunat...

I've often heard software/start-up folks say they need a "designer." Few realize how hopelessly vague this is. I think there are at least four different (unrelated) start-up "design" skills that are rarely all found in one person. Four types of "designers" for software start-ups: 1) Artist Designers (a.k.a., Graphic Designers) They usually know Adobe Illustrator, can draw by hand beauti...

A mistake we all make sometimes is attributing an improvement to whatever we've tried recently. For instance, we may get medicine from a doctor (or go to an acupuncturist) and feel better, so we conclude it worked. But did it actually work, or was it just chance? Here's a trick to help you decide: What matters (evidence-wise) is how likely that level of improvement would have been in that time...

1. Suppose a new species evolves on earth with the same intellectual, planning, and coordination abilities relative to us that we have relative to chimps. Chimps are faster and stronger than most humans - why don't they run the show? 2. Suppose aliens show up on earth that are far smarter than the smartest among us at all cognitive tasks. They have specific goals that aren't fully aligned with...

Meta-analyses are supposed to combine the evidence on a topic from many studies (e.g., does melatonin help sleep?) to produce an answer. Many people even consider them the gold standard for evidence about scientific questions. Unfortunately, taking a weighted average of many different studies sometimes doesn't work because averaging the studies can be meaningless. Suppose a meta-analysis on...

There's a deep and surprising sense in which money can't be "wasted" from a bird's eye perspective - only resources and people's time can be wasted. If someone "wastes" $100, someone else now has $100 extra to spend. Even burning bills deflates the currency, making other bills more valuable. But people's time genuinely can be wasted. The tragedy of someone spending hundreds of millions of d...