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Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg — Science
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you’ll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math, economics, self-help, mental health, and technology. We focus on ideas that can be applied right now to make your life better or to help you better understand yourself and the world, aiming to teach you the best mental tools to enhance your learning, self-improvement efforts, and decision-making. • We take on important, thorny questions like: • What’s the best way to help a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? How can we make our worldviews more accurate? How can we hone the accuracy of our thinking? What are the advantages of using our “gut” to make decisions? And when should we expect careful, analytical reflection to be more effective? Why do societies sometimes collapse? And what can we do to reduce the chance that ours collapses? Why is the world today so much worse than it could be? And what can we do to make it better? What are the good and bad parts of tradition? And are there more meaningful and ethical ways of carrying out important rituals, such as honoring the dead? How can we move beyond zero-sum, adversarial negotiations and create more positive-sum interactions?

Latest Episodes:

Social Science and Science Journalism (with Jesse Singal) Apr 07, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

Should we trust social science research? What is the open science movement? What is the "file drawer" effect? How can common sense help social science dig itself out of the replicability crisis? Is social science in the West too focused on interventions for individuals? How useful is the Implicit Association Test? How useful is the concept of "grit"? How should journalists communicate confidence or skepticism about scientific results? What incentive structures stand in the way of honestly and openly critiquing scientific methods or findings?

Jesse Singal is a contributing writer at New York Magazine and cohost of the podcast Blocked and Reported. He is also the author of The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills, which came out April 6, 2021, and which you can order here. You can read more of his work at jessesingal.substack.com.

Further reading

"Want to End Bullying? Get the Popular Students to Help" by Jesse Singal

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum

Music

Affiliates

Search Data and Self-Improvement (with Seth Stephens-Davidowitz) Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What can we learn about people from search data? What does search data reveal about human nature that surveys and polls fail to reveal? What patterns of searching do people exhibit when they're suffering from mental and physical illnesses? How can we use data to make better decisions, become better parents, date better, and be happier?

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a data scientist, author, consultant, and keynote speaker. His book Everybody Lies was a New York Times bestseller and an Economist and PBS NewsHour Book of the Year. He has worked as a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, a data scientist at Google, and a visiting lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a BA, Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford in philosophy and a PhD in economics from Harvard. Find more about him at sethsd.com, follow him on Twitter at @seths_d, or email him at seth.stephens@gmail.com.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Janaisa Baril — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Poker and Productivity (with Chris Sparks) Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What can people learn from playing poker? What makes someone good at playing games? What is the OODA loop? What is a "premortem" analysis of decision-making? How should we think about decisions that aren't easily (or even possibly) reversible? What do people get wrong when they're trying to be more productive? What is a "forcing function"? How can people create their own forcing functions?

Chris Sparks is a professional poker player and the founder and CEO of Forcing Function. You can find his full bio here, follow him on Twitter at @SparksRemarks, or find more of his work via these links:

Further reading

OODA Loop

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Jennifer Vanderhoof — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Moral Discourse and the Value of Philosophy (with Ronny Fernandez) Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What is normative hedonism? What's the difference between wanting something and wanting to want something? Should we only care about the experiences of conscious beings? What's wrong with moral discourse? Does philosophy ever actually make progress, or is it still only discussing the things that were discussed a thousand years ago? What is (or should be) the role of intuition in philosophy? Why should people study philosophy (especially as opposed to other disciplines)? What can we do to create more rationality or systematic wisdom in the world? How can we disagree better?

Ronny Fernandez is a philosophy PhD student at Rutgers University and high school dropout. He is interested in formal epistemology, human rationality, and AI alignment. He blogs at figuringfiguring.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @TrueBrangus or send him an email at anonnerdfrenzy@gmail.com.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Janaisa Baril — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Superintelligence and Consciousness (with Roman Yampolskiy) Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What is superintelligence? Can a superintelligence be controlled? Why aren't people (especially academics, computer scientists, and companies) more worried about superintelligence alignment problems? Is it possible to determine whether or not an AI is conscious? Do today's neural networks experience some form of consciousness? Are humans general intelligences? How do artificial superintelligence and artificial general intelligence differ? What sort of threats do malevolent actors pose over and above those posed by the usual problems in AI safety?

Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy is a Tenured Associate Professor in the department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Louisville. He is the founding and current director of the Cyber Security Lab and an author of many books including Artificial Superintelligence: a Futuristic Approach. Dr. Yampolskiy's main areas of interest are Artificial Intelligence Safety and Cybersecurity. Follow him on Twitter at @romanyam.

Further reading

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Jennifer Vanderhoof — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Meditation and Ontology (with Daniel Ingram) Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

Why should we meditate? What are the typical developmental stages as one progresses along the contemplative path? What does it mean to "hold an ontology loosely"? Are some meditative techniques inappropriate for some practitioners? Are there risks associated with meditation?

Further reading

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Jennifer Vanderhoor — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Rationality Education and Dating (with Jacob Falkovich) Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What's the best way to teach rationality? How do you communicate rationalist principles to people who aren't already interested in thinking more clearly? What has COVID taught us about how people typically make decisions and think about problems? Where and how can the rationalist community improve? Does rationalism have anything to say about (for example) exercise, spirituality, art, or other parts of the human experience that aren't typically addressed by rationalists? What are some positive aspects of social media (especially Twitter)? What's going on with recent dating trends? Has dating gotten harder in recent years? How many people does it take to make a pencil? Is there a case to be made for anti-antinatalism?

Jacob is the only rationalist with an MBA. He writes Putanumonit.com and is famous for bringing the idea of decision matrices to the pages of the Economist and the New York Times. Jacob is Russian-Israeli and is currently living in Brooklyn with his wife and two guinea pigs. Follow him on Twitter at @yashkaf.

Further reading

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Jennifer Vanderhoof — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Preference Falsification and Postmodernism (with Michael Vassar) Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

How much preference falsification is occurring in society? What's the difference between conflict theory and mistake theory? Why is postmodernism useful to understand?

Michael Vassar was the President of the Singularity Institute from 2009 to 2012. Subsequently, he has worked in business consulting, especially in association with cutting edge science, although these days he primarily invests his own assets. You can contact him at michael.vassar@gmail.com.

Further reading

My IRB Nightmare — the Slate Star Codex codex account of trying to do a study in a hospital that we discuss in the episode
GPT-3 — the A.I. language model discussed in the episode that was released by OpenAI
Preference falsification
Conflict theory vs. Mistake theory and people's views on society
The "postmodern" analysis / article that Michael brought up

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Jennifer Vanderhoof — Transcriptionist

Music

Affiliates

Moral Foundations Theory and Constructive Dialogue (with Caroline Mehl) Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What is the Moral Foundations Theory? Is the MFT a model that's only intended to describe human behavior and psychology, or does it also make claims about what's actually true about morality? Why does morality exist in the first place? How can the MFT be used to have better conversations across ideological and cultural divides? What (if anything) helps groups to cohere successfully as they increase in size? Why is internet communication especially hostile and prone to misunderstandings? What common mistakes do people make in in-person communication? What is OpenMind?

Caroline Mehl is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of OpenMind, a non-profit EdTech organization that leverages behavioral science to foster openness to diverse perspectives and equip people with skills for constructive dialogue. OpenMind's evidence-based tools have been used by more than 35,000 people across more than 15 countries. As part of her role, Caroline advises workplaces, universities, philanthropists, and communities on how to create more open and inclusive cultures. You can learn more about OpenMind and use it yourself at openmindplatform.org.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum

Music

Affiliates

Past / Future Selves and Intrinsic Values (with Simone Collins) Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

How well do we identify with our past and future selves? What are some of the ways we can develop self-awareness and emotional control? How can we learn more and learn faster at a younger age? How can we best express emotions like sadness and anger? What are our intrinsic values, and what should they be?

Simone is a Cambridge-educated crumpet addict who joyfully attacks life with her husband Malcolm Collins, with whom she founded an art commission startup (ArtCorgi) and raised a miniature private equity fund to acquire a management business (Travelmax), which the couple presently operates. Together the Collinses founded and run The Pragmatist Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to fighting tribalism and promoting pragmatic approaches to life's challenges. Simone dreams of someday parenting seven children with Vulcan-like logic and grace, but will settle with someday parenting seven children with dogged human endurance.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum

Music

Affiliates

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