I've spoken before about how it's difficult to interpret texts written by people with very different background assumptions, interests and preoccupations from you. Here I experiment with enumerating my basic beliefs in the hope that it'll make the meaning of my writing more transparent. Read more (13 min, 3200 words).
A long postmortem of the conflict between Sam Harris and Ezra Klein over Harris's podcast with political scientist Charles Murray. I explain their disagreement as stemming from differences in interpretation of the original podcast, cultural expectations and psychological tendencies. Read more (36 min, 9100 words)
In response to an article by Kevin Simler I complain about how often people mistake "selfishness" in an evolutionary sense for selfishness in the normal sense. Read more (12 min, 2900 words).
I spent a week without a smartphone, prompting nostalgia about how things used to be done in the past and thoughts about smartphone addiction and what it does to our relationship with reality. Read more (12 min, 2900 words)
What sort of people would be considered weird if nerdiness was the norm? Read more (14 min, 3400 words)
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" it's said. Here I try to explain how and why. Read more (5 min, 1100 words)
Responding to a post on Suspended Reason, I talk about how underwhelming conceptual art is, why it's more subjective than other kinds and why it's highly regarded even though it shouldn't be. Read more (14 min, 3500 words)
I take an article about the mechanics of intercultural communication and extend it, arguing most communication these days could be considered intercultural. Read more (6 min, 1500 words)
We pay lip service to the idea that people are different, but don't take it seriously enough. It needs to be something we keep in mind all the time. There are many ways people can be different and their thinking can be different, and we should learn to be aware of them all. Read more (5 min, 1300 words)
A second and more to the point attempt at pinning down what ”erisology” (or ”the study of disagreement”) actually is and what other fields are relevant to it.Read more (1100 words)
