We often talk as though we are in direct contact with reality - as though our eyes show us the world, and our minds read off the facts. But between whatever reality fundamentally is and the experience you're having right now, there are a surprising number of layers. At each layer, two types of error happen: information gets left out, and bias creeps in. By the time experience reaches you, there's the potential for a great deal of both to have accumulated.
Put another way, rather than p...
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bias
Categorizing The Causes Of Bad Things In The World
What causes bad things? It sounds like a huge question, but maybe it's not as big as it seems. Here's my updated/improved list of high-level causes of bad things in the world. Note that these are not mutually exclusive categories. I've also added some potential solutions for each cause.
I'd be interested to know: what is missing from my new list of causes of bad things and potential types of solutions? Thanks to those of you who commented on my prior version!
Causes of bad things in the w...
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You’re right about everything
You're absolutely right. About all of it. The big stuff, the weird stuff, the "nobody-gets-this" stuff. Every belief you hold is, against all odds, completely correct. I know I said before that you were wrong, but it was I who was wrong! Here's proof:
1) Unlike others, you're self-aware. You know your limits, so - unlike other people - when you know something, it's true. You weighed the evidence they ignored and saw angles they missed. Corrected your own biases. Your unique perspective revea...
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Trusting the science
Is it a bad idea to broadly tell people to just "trust the science"? I think so.
The reason stems from my thinking that all of the following are important and true (and too often overlooked) regarding science:
1) A lot of science is real AND valuable to society.
2) A lot of "science" is actually fake - see, for instance, a decent percentage of papers in psychology 15 years ago.
3) "Science" (as an approach to knowledge discovery) is one of humanity's greatest inventions - but in pra...
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Three big reasons we struggle to find the truth
As I see it, there are three main causes for our struggles to see the truth on any particular topic:
1. Mimicry: when our in-group promotes falsity that we copy
2. Incentives: when we predict that knowing the truth would feel bad or harm our objectives
3. Complexity: when the truth is hard to figure out
Examples:
1. Mimicry
• Some are Christians because all their friends and family are, too; some are atheists for the same reason.
• Some think that it makes sense to ...
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Weird but potentially valuable new roles we could have in our society
There are certain roles in society that come with special training, powers, and responsibilities. For instance: doctors (can prescribe medicine), lawyers (client-attorney privilege), judges (can bindingly interpret law), etc.
Here's my list of some weird but potentially really valuable roles in society that don't exist but maybe should:
Role 1: Truth Teller
They wear a special, very noticeable hat. When wearing it, they are not permitted to say anything they know to be untrue (they...
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Ideology Eats Itself When Truth Becomes Stigmatized
A quick primer on how to be a genuinely good person who harms the world:
1: Start to think that one ideology you like - which contains genuine benefits, truths, and positive moral elements - might be the only valid perspective.
2: Surround yourself with believers until you're convinced that your view is common and normal.
3: Ignore your own doubts so that you can fit in better. Join in on chastising (and eventually ostracizing) insiders who doubt too much. Punish slightly more hars...
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Three Types of Nuanced Thinking
I think that one of the most important skill sets for good thinking is “Nuanced Thinking,” which is what I call it when you approach a problem with open-mindedness while avoiding binary thinking traps (i.e., resisting dichotomies). Our brains, too often, are dichotomizing machines. We tend to simplify the world into true or false, good or bad, is or is not. This dichotomizing tendency works well when it comes to relatively simple topics like:
• 1+1=2 (true) vs., the Illuminati controls our p...
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How word choice subtly manipulates us
It's remarkable the degree to which language can paint a picture of something being good or bad, or someone being trustworthy or unreliable, without actually making any factual claims. The more aware of this you become, the more you start seeing it all over the place. Language is often not neutral and objective even when it professes to be. We all know that language can have positive or negative connotations without actually claiming anything specific, but I think it's easy to underestimate how...
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How Journalism Distorts Reality
Journalism provides us with important information about what's going on in the world. But when you consider the incentives that journalists have, combine that with their usual lack of scientific training, and add in the constraints of the medium in which they work, serious distortions of reality can result. Many journalists produce excellent work. But others leave you less informed after reading their articles than before you began.
What causes journalistic distortion?
1. Equal time to eac...
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