Science has swung from "take no one's word for it" on one side to "trust the science" on the other.
I discuss how science has changed over time, and how it will continue to change in the future, in this article:
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Geoff Anders
@geoffanders
Philosopher, research program designer. Looking forward to a bright future, borne of knowledge.
Joined August 2009
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Good public philosophy helps to attune people to confusions and think about them.
There is a difference between "solving" a philosophical question and providing causal explanations of opposing viewpoints.
The latter has a place, but must be paired with good philosophy.
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in philosophy of mind — an empirically adequate theory of psychology might be written in mentalistic terms with no simple physical translation, which would provide empirical evidence that the mind is not physical
So, such a theory might provide evidence on philosophical topics.
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in metaphysics — if an empirically adequate theory of psychology contained indeterminacy, that would provide empirical evidence that not all things have causes
in epistemology — an empirically adequate theory of psychology might show that rational certainty is impossible
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Though of course we could imagine an empirically adequate theory of psychology *bearing* on those questions.
For instance...
in ethics — an empirically adequate theory of psychology might show that we have no cognitive access to objective moral truths even if they exist.
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Some examples:
Ethics — whether there are objective moral truths
Metaphysics — whether all things have causes
Epistemology — whether ultimate justification is possible
Mind — whether consciousness is physical
...
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An empirically adequate theory of psychology would leave many important philosophical questions unanswered.
This includes questions in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.
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A sufficiently good theory of psychology would solve almost all open questions in philosophy.
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This is a useful thing people with knowledge can do:
Transmit tactical guidance to live players to help them achieve positive ends.
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As a result, a live player that wishes to lobby the FDA to allow human trials of xenotransplants has a clear task:
Reduce the perception of the illegitimacy of xenotransplants.
Rather than demonstrating clinical safety, it is a challenge of public relations.
3/n
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True on the first point. Also different people's internal monologues serve different purposes.
The second point is misleading. People *can* *often* explain their experience more and more precisely, and it's often very useful to do that.
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i don’t believe some people have inner monologues, while others don’t. i believe people are fundamentally incapable of explaining their experience of the world in precise language.
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PSA: Argument maps are not a good way to approach consensus.
The idea comes up from time to time and it's attractive, but ultimately isn't the right direction.
See Leverage's research report on the topic:
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Okay, I'm calling it on the thread! Thanks for people who liked and RTed, I hope you all found this helpful.
Also thanks to for recommending Polya's How to Solve It, which I'll be looking into.
I may return to this topic later for a longer treatment.
Happy new years!
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54. Ask again and again: what can I do better?
On my projects, I've found places to improve thousands of times.
If you've run out of ways to improve, change your scope. Sometimes look for 10% improvements, sometimes look for 10x.
Improvements are out there — find them!
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53. Befriend others working on important problems.
There are plenty of other people who want to work on difficult and important problems, and some who are actually good at solving them.
So make some friends! You and they will need support, and you'll all learn from each other.
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52. Work very hard, but take breaks.
It's unlikely that you'll solve any extremely hard problems without working very hard. So assume you'll have to do that.
But *also* remember to take breaks. Time off can give your mind space to reconceptualize problems, which can be helpful.
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51. Work on multiple important problems.
It may seem crazy to work on *several* important problems at once.
But remember that important problems are a natural class — especially because they've all resisted solution so far.
So what you learn from one may apply to another.
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50. It's not over until it's over.
Think you've run out of possibilities and success is impossible? Consider trying to *prove* that it's impossible to succeed.
Frequently you'll find that your expectation of doom is based on some unjustified premise which you should challenge.
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49. Engage in systematic search.
Think everything has been tried? Try to prove that by exhaustively enumerating strategies and then trying to argue that those are the only possible strategies.
In many cases, you'll find there are things you and others haven't tried yet!
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If the members of a field don't see the value in reading difficult texts, or never learned to, a narrower range of work will be admitted into that field.
Sometimes good, sometimes bad.
For greater diversity of thought in your field, require patience with more difficult texts.
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Lovely Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve and then spending the evening reading. This is something I could get behind. Especially if it involves reading in a hot spring via
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Merry Christmas! 🎄🎄🎄
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Summary of Fight Club on Amazon Prime:
“Two young professionals create an underground club where men can compete in hand-to-hand combat.”
😂
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Leverage strategy presentation today at 12-1pm PT in our Gather office.
I'll be talking about narratives and ideologies, as well as describing more about Leverage's strategy and how that strategy is evolving. Also answering qs.
Come join!
Here's a link: bit.ly/LR-gather-Dec-
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Leverage Strategy Presentation tomorrow 12 - 1 PM PT in our virtual Gather Office.
Don't forget we're hosting our semiannual strategy presentation tomorrow. Everything you need to know to join can be found on the event page.
Event page: bit.ly/LR-gather-Dec-Show this thread
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Featured in PALLADIUM 08:
In the “Transformations of Science,” charts science’s path from a spirited network of collaborators who checked each other’s work to a powerful truth-making institution that only asks that you “trust the science.”
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thoughts? :D
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It can be crazy to think about the multipliers one gets by following advice like the above.
The difference between "follows none" vs. "follows half" vs. "follows all" is *really* *really* high.
I've also posted 48, which is 30 likes + 16 retweets, so I'm going to call it soon.
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48. Use every advantage you can.
The previous advice covers problem difficulty, morale, self-management, and a bunch of other things.
When working on important problems, it's important to take advantage of every source of help you can.
Remember: crush the problem.
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47. Let yourself be helped.
Even though people may not understand what you're doing, many people will still want to help you.
Be a person who lets themselves be helped. Be open to aid, be grateful to those who provide it.
Remember, in the end humanity is cheering for you.
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46. Don't be your own enemy.
Self-management is one of the most important parts of working on difficult problems.
You'll have to maintain your motivation, your beliefs about whether you're exceptional, your relation to other people.
Master yourself. (Easier said than done!)
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45. Concretely imagine victory.
Problems are concrete things. When solved, the world will change.
Understand what it looks like if you succeed. Imagine it concretely - what you'll say, what others will say, how life will be different.
This can keep ambitious efforts grounded.
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44. Learn to explain your efforts clearly.
Go further - work to be able to explain clearly the *details* of what you're working on.
This can be very hard for technical problems. But there is payoff, since other people often have good input, if you can explain what you're doing.
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43. Maintain legibility to others.
In some cases, work on important problems will take you *way* outside what other people understand or expect.
When that happens, it's important to continue to be able to explain to others what you're doing.
It will help keep you sane.
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42. Bring yourself back to the goal.
When working on big problems, it can be easy to compromise. This is sometimes subtle - you'll find yourself aiming at some easier goal.
Understand what it means for the original goal to be achieved, and bring yourself back to that.
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41. Expect to start off being biased.
The more important and difficult a problem, the more likely other people are to act weirdly or irrationally around them. (Example: death.)
But you're not so different from those people. So expect yourself to start off broadly the same.
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40. Expect deeper social dysfunction.
The longer a problem hasn't been solved, the more time there's been for weird social convolution to occur around the problem.
Also, social convolution hides itself.
So, be ready for social dysfunction to be deeper and weird than expected.
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39. Avoid an oppositional attitude.
There's a lot of pressure to go in standard directions. Going a new direction often requires resisting that pressure.
The easiest way to resist pressure is to develop an oppositional attitude. But that sort of attitude can cloud your vision.
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38. Expect to meet opposition.
In many cases, problems won't be solved because people *oppose* steps in the right direction.
This usually unintentional. They may just be warning people away from approaches that "won't work."
And you may not encounter opposition. But be ready.
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37. Expect the problem to be misunderstood.
If a problem is well-understood, it's much more likely that it's already on track to being solved. So if it's not on track, it's probably not understood very well.
Look for the concrete ways people misunderstand the problem.
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So it should be clear that in addition to the basics, there’s actually a lot one can learn about how to approach hard and important problems.
But there’s still more to be said about this. So let’s now look at some social facts and ethos surrounding solving important problems.
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36. Combine all sources of information about difficulty.
So, one can triangulate to knowledge of a problem via facts about the problem itself, social facts surrounding the problem, facts of failed attempts, facts of provability, and more.
Use all of these where you can.
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