In the new year, many will try to develop habits of keeping their homes & workspaces tidy, but maybe their longing for uncluttered space is driven more by a set of cultural biases than any sort of practical advantage.

https://youtu.be/V3VoO7Xr2TQ

234. Tidiness

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q is a bit of a puzzle - on the one hand, he's an incomprehensibly intelligent being from outside time & space. On the other hand, he's incredibly aggravating & petty. One might say that, with such phenomenal insight, he should be more objective...but what does that mean, exactly?

https://youtu.be/gmJYsgGUAm4

233. The View from Nowhere & Aliens

Apple has built their brand on a fanatical commitment to design, but their devices can be straight-up hostile when it comes to repair & maintenance. Maybe one leads to the other.

https://youtu.be/8PfDRgEud2s

232. Design vs. Repair

https://youtu.be/8CrbNNwirkI 

Have you ever watched in horror as someone systematically, deliberately makes every wrong decision necessary for disaster? Philosopher Leslie Howe advances a theory that may help to explain the phenomenon: it’s easy to ignore warning signs if you buy your own bullshit.

Links for the Curious -

Bullshit as a practical strategy for self‐deceptive narrators (Howe, 2022) - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/phil.12318

‘Pizzagate’ gunman says he was foolish, reckless, mistaken — and sorry - The Washington Post

Lies, Bullshit and Fake News (MacKenzie & Batt, 2020) - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-019-00085-4

A Slice Of Pragmatism: Navigating The Pizzagate Conspiracy, Bullshit and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era (Jones, 2019) - https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/1061163/Jones,%20Madeline%202019.pdf?sequence=1  

Bullshit as a Problem of Social Epistemology (Wakeham, 2017) - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joshua-Wakeham/publication/315321666_Bullshit_as_a_Problem_of_Social_Epistemology/links/5a14dce7aca27273c9eb0ea0/Bullshit-as-a-Problem-of-Social-Epistemology.pdf 


On Bullshit (Frankfurt, 1986) - http://www2.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f12/frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf 

Warrant and action (Gerken, 2011) - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-009-9655-0 

Components of Vested Interest and
Attitude-Behavior Consistency (Crano & Prislin, 1995) - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Radmila-Prislin/publication/247808633_Components_of_Vested_Interest_and_Attitude-Behavior_Consistency/links/54adca260cf2213c5fe4199c/Components-of-Vested-Interest-and-Attitude-Behavior-Consistency.pdf  

Self-Regulatory Aspects of Bullshitting and Bullshit Detection (Petrocelli et al, 2020) - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341055056_Self-Regulatory_Aspects_of_Bullshitting_and_Bullshit_Detection/link/5f654c24a6fdcc00862d1395/download 

Probably not the best idea I’ve ever had (Mistie Knight) - https://www.instagram.com/p/ChiYvGOJz5I/?hl=en 

Expensive Fails: Mo Money, Mo Fails | FailArmy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaWn4VP37SU

231. Self-Bullsh*t

Ads are everywhere, & find their way into more places every day. Companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year shilling for their products. But there’s a question we haven’t answered conclusively: do ads *work?*

https://youtu.be/iln8PuiQ8kk

230. Advertising

When you think of "being productive," you probably imagine some variation of rise-and-grind. But Cal Newport's theory of Deep Work suggests, if we want to maximize productivity, maybe we should try to cultivate some room for quiet, uninterrupted thinking.

https://youtu.be/uUMl5KtHh4E

229. Deep Work

https://youtu.be/1K23sO-G0uE 

We often look to intelligent individuals to provide us with insight & guidance, but if you ask science writer David Robson, intelligence isn’t just the wrong barometer for good decision-making, it might make for *worse* decisions!

-Links for the Curious-

The Intelligence Trap, by David Robson - https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/The-Intelligence-Trap---Why-Smart-People-Make-Dumb-Mistakes-9780393651423

The Evidence-Based Wisdom Blog - https://evidencebasedwisdom.com/

Decision-Making Competence: More Than Intelligence? (Bruin et al, 2020) - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963721420901592

A Route to Well-being: Intelligence vs. Wise Reasoning (Grossman et al, 2014) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3594053/pdf/nihms422604.pdf 

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test in three international samples: An empirical test of the triarchic theory of intelligence (Sternberg et al, 2001) - https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-14900-001 

Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex (Bechara, Damasio et al,, 1994) - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.407.9471&rep=rep1&type=pdf

The Iowa Gambling Task and the somatic marker hypothesis: some questions and answers (Bechara, Damasio et al,, 2005) - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.137.6124&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Deciding Advantageously Before Knowing the
Advantageous Strategy (Bechara, Damasio et al, 1997) - https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~dana/Damasio2.pdf


Neil deGrasse Tyson Has a Critically Important Message for Americans - https://futurism.com/watch-neil-degrasse-tyson-has-a-critically-important-message-for-americans

Bill Gates: Japan can play big role in fight against infectious diseases | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News - https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220820_02/

Bill Gates reveals his involvement in pushing through climate bill in interview with Bloomberg | Fox News - https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-gates-reveals-involvement-pushing-through-climate-bill-interview-bloomberg

IAmA 74-time Jeopardy! champion, Ken Jennings. I will not be answering in the form of a question. - https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fwpzj/iama_74time_jeopardy_champion_ken_jennings_i_will/

Bill Gates, Big Pharma and entrenching the vaccine apartheid - The Mail & Guardian - https://mg.co.za/coronavirus-essentials/2021-01-30-bill-gates-big-pharma-and-entrenching-the-vaccine-apartheid/

Why Socialism? (Einstein, 1949) - https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/

Cocktail party ideas (Dan Luu) - https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/

228. The Intelligence Trap & Evidence-Based Wisdom

Mechanical engineering has its own, mathematically-defined version of "less is more," & once you know about it, you'll see it *everywhere.*

- Links for the Curious -

The Minimum Constraint Design & the First Axiom (Santos et al, 2009) - https://www.axiomaticdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/icad2009_15.pdf 

Designing Cost-Efficient Mechanisms (Kamm, 1990) - https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/Designing-Cost-Efficient-Mechanisms---Minimum-Constraint-Design--Designing-with-Commercial-Components--and-Topics-in-Design-Engineering-9781560914099

The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander, 1979) - https://www.june.kim/timeless-way-of-building

Mike Rugnetta - https://rugnetta.com/, https://www.patreon.com/mikerugnetta

136. Engineering Wisdom: Tolerance & Failing Gracefully - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AYuXNz_0Fc

175. The Aesthetic of Programming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH8HvHj5eFQ

227. Minimum Constraint Design

The “logic” of the ultimatum game is simple - something is better than nothing, so you ought to accept any deal where you come out ahead, no matter how unfair that deal is. Why, then, does almost everyone reject unfair deals, even if it means sacrifice?

https://youtu.be/o0MyC54j-SM

226. The Ultimatum Game

Every generation invents its own lingo - language naturally evolves & develops over time. But quietly re-inventing terminology for stuff that’s already named (“relexicalization”) can be a move with far-reaching political & epistemic consequences.

https://youtu.be/F2_m2JVkBY0

225. Relexicalization: Extraneous Renaming

Many of those who are 100% convinced by Nick Bostrom’s arguments about the potential for a runaway superintelligence tend to share certain beliefs about the world - is it possible that his case hits much differently depending on one’s starting assumptions?

224. Superintelligence Assumptions

What walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon, & 3 legs at night? A very peculiar dog! ...wait, was that not the answer? Why is it that puzzles are so different from real-life problems?

223. Puzzles vs. Problems

Could certain FORMS of media, the details of how their textual CONTENT is instantiated, reliably affect the MEANING of the messages they convey? Put another way: is PowerPoint making us stupid?

222. Powerpoint – Form & Content

Sometimes, it feels like the best way forward on a project is to throw everything out & start over from scratch, but Joel Spolsky is adamant that this is a terrible idea, & there’s decent evidence that he’s right.

221. Spolsky’s Maxim & Starting from Scratch

Charles Peirce's ideas were revolutionary, kicking off an entire philosophical movement now called "pragmatism," but one might argue that his ideas bear little resemblance to the path pragmatism ultimately took...he certainly thought as much. https://youtu.be/aWrEPmoox_I

220. Peirce’s Pragmatism

YouTubers *HATE* him! This ONE WEIRD TRICK has sensationalist media creators ~THINKING DEEPLY~ about the systemic pressures of a ***RACE TO THE BOTTOM FOR ATTENTION!!!*** CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!!!!!11!!

219. Clickbait & Sensationalism

Research suggests that authentic dissent frequently leads a group to better decisions than a contrarian simply playing “Devil’s Advocate.” The question is: why should it matter if someone really disagrees, or is just faking it?

218. Playing Devil’s Advocate

Are descriptors like "good" and "evil" pointing at real, objective features of the world? Surprisingly, despite the weirdness of moral facts, most philosophers would say "yes.”  Why? Well...morality might not be the only thing in those crosshairs…😬

216. Companions in Guilt

Futurists often suggest that technology grows exponentially more powerful over time, but there may be good reasons to doubt this notion, & *very* good reasons not to wait around for the future tech they promise is imminent.

215. The Theory of Accelerating Change

We normally think of our beliefs as being held up by a structure of supporting evidence & justification, ultimately based in some fundamental, irrefutable, "given" facts, but Wilfred Sellars thinks "givens" are a myth.

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