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Everything Studies

I have an abstraction problem

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Tag: psychology

The Prince and the Figurehead

19 August, 201917 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 16 Comments

When we misrepresent other people, is it a mistake or do we do it on purpose? Neither explanation feels right to me. Rather, I think we should consider that we often perform "semitentional" actions, which is the result of our agency being more distributed than we think. Read more (6 min, 2900 words).

The Tilted Political Compass, Part 1: Left and Right

1 March, 20192 April, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 38 Comments

I'm not a fan of the popular Political Compass. Here I explain why, list what makes a good 2-by-2 and rederive the meaning of the political left and right. Read more (10 min, 3300 words).

The Romeo And Juliet Fallacy

19 December, 201817 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 5 Comments

We have a tendency to feel that ideas are mutually exclusive even when they aren't. Sometimes this is because their indirect implications clash with each other, giving us the impression that they clash themselves. Read more (7 min, 2000 words).

30 Fundamentals

16 July, 201817 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 23 Comments

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 Deep Dive into the Harris-Klein Controversy

26 April, 201817 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 71 Comments

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)

A Lament on Simler Et Al

5 December, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 8 Comments

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).

My Week in the Real World

23 November, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ Leave a comment

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)

The Nerd as the Norm

7 November, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 41 Comments

What sort of people would be considered weird if nerdiness was the norm? Read more (14 min, 3400 words)

Dangers at Dilettante Point

28 August, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 5 Comments

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" it's said. Here I try to explain how and why.
Read more (5 min, 1100 words)

On Chords, Maps and Effects in Art

18 August, 20178 March, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 4 Comments

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)

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