Brezhnev syndrome and why we’re bad at understanding others
People unlike us Understanding others is hard. It’s so hard that we default to very simple heuristics when doing so. The easiest one is empathy. We have pretty good access
Category: Thoughts
The meaning of science
I used to be a science communicator. When I did a PhD, my research drew mainly on the philosophy of science and science studies. My postdoctoral research was getting more
Nuclear policy is evil not irrational
Hey we’re all gonna die one day but did you know the US government has a plan for how we can all die together? Literally everyone should read Daniel Ellsberg’s
Four types of myth?
In order of rough appearance in history, here are four types of myth. All of them, it should be obvious, are meaningful: they provide their users with what Kenneth Burke called “equipment
Deduction, subjectivity & culture are all real enough
People and philosophers tend to get bogged down in binary oppositions like objective vs subjective, nature vs culture and inductive vs deductive knowledge. Continental philosophers tend to complicate such binaries, trying
I’m with stupid
I’ve always thought the big unexplored emancipation or rights movement is helping the unintelligent. Below average intelligence is strongly correlated with poorer life outcomes across many measures. I’m not going all Bell Curve
Occupy humanity
Well, like anyone I started out totally hopeless, a complete vernix-covered liability. Ageing from zero, my beliefs and opinions have appeared and have more or less been in a complete state of flux. I
I blame the victim blamers
Don’t blame the victim and don’t blame the perpetrator. I call out victim blaming wherever I see it. Obviously in rape culture the phrase denotes people who offer reasons that women