By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace
Image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2
This is the fifth and final part in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the first, second, third, and fourth parts.
In previous posts, I've described Valuism - my life philosophy. I've also discussed how it could serve as a life philosophy for others. In this post, I discuss how a Valuist lens can help shed light on various fields and areas of inquiry.
Valuism and ...
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truth-seeking
Should Effective Altruists be Valuists instead of utilitarians? – part 3 in the Valuism sequence
By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace
Image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2
This is the third of five posts in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the first, second, fourth, and fifth parts (though the links won’t work until those other essays are released).
Sometimes, people take an important value - maybe their most important value - and decide to prioritize it above all other things. They neglect or ignore their other values in the process. In ...
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Doing what you value as a life philosophy – an introduction to Valuism – part 1 in the Valuism sequence
By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace
Image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2
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 confl...
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Awkwardly Embracing Awkwardness
All else being equal, it's good to avoid creating awkwardness. But too much awkwardness-avoidance can be harmful.
Lately, I've been trying to accept a bit more awkwardness (rather than reflexively avoiding it) in cases where I think doing so can produce value.
Here are four areas where I'm leaning more into awkwardness:
1. When asked for feedback on a project (and I think it will fail), I'm usually tempted to focus on what I like about it.
I've now become more likely ...
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Understand how other people think: a theory of worldviews
This piece was coauthored with Amber Dawn Ace.
A libertarian, a socialist, an environmentalist, and a pro-development YIMBY watch an apartment complex being built. The libertarian is pleased - ‘the hand of the market at work!’ - whereas the socialist worries that the building is a harbinger of gentrification; the YIMBY sees progress, but the environmentalist is concerned about the building’s carbon footprint. They’re all seeing the same thing, but they understand it differently because they ...
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Why I changed my mind about courage
I used to not think much of courage as a virtue. After all, isn't it courageous to drive 50 mph over the speed limit despite being nervous about driving - or to rob a bank despite being next to a police station?Don't soldiers show courage fighting, even when fighting for the more evil side?It takes courage to become a boxer (because you're likely to have your face pummeled by a powerful person), but is that a good trait to encourage?What made me rethink courage was witnessing many cases where p...
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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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Hypothesis about America: people are coming to realize society is messed up
I've been coming to think that the following hypothesis may be true about America:
Increasingly, people in the U.S. are concluding that society is really F'd up. But the reasons are subtle, hidden, and complex, so each group picks their favorite simple enemy to blame. Problems go unfixed.
Points in favor of the claim that people are increasingly coming to this realization:
1. This helps explain Trump's election in 2016. Many rural Republicans and disaffected independents believed s...
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How Ideology Eats Itself
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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