Podcasts about clearerthinking

Mike "C-Roc" sits down with Spencer Greenberg, an entrepreneur, mathematician, and psychology researcher passionate about improving human well-being. As the founder of ClearerThinking.org and Spark Wave, Spencer has dedicated his career to developing tools and conducting research to help people make better decisions, understand themselves, and build lives of purpose. With over 200,000 subscribers, his insights on critical thinking and habit formation have reached a global audience, and his podcast, Clearer Thinking, is among the top 1% worldwide. "C-Roc" and Spencer dive deep into the building blocks of success, from identifying personal assets and liabilities to cultivating positive habits and surrounding yourself with supportive people. Spencer shares his unique approach to self-improvement, which combines mathematical precision and psychological insight, and explains how cognitive behavioral techniques can reshape one's personality traits, like reducing neuroticism. Listeners will also learn about the importance of self-awareness and emotional regulation, and how mindfulness can help control reactions for healthier relationships and a clearer mind. Whether you're an entrepreneur or anyone looking to think more clearly, this conversation provides valuable tools to better understand yourself and take control of your journey. Website- https://www.clearerthinking.org/ Social Media Link/Handles - https://www.instagram.com/spencrgreenberg/?hl=en https://x.com/SpencrGreenberg

A new study has found astrologers are no better at prediction than random guessing. Does that matter? Many of those obsessed with their astrological chart when pressed might still admit it's probably a little bit bullshit – but they like it, it's fun, and it doesn't do any harm. But for those who use astrology to help them make significant decisions in their life, it sort of does matter whether this stuff is true. Enter Spencer Greenberg, the founder of ClearerThinking.org, a social enterprise in the US. He and his colleagues were so interested in the topic that they designed and conducted a study to hopefully settle the argument once and for all – on this episode of The Briefing, he joins Bension Siebert to help explain what they found. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the first half of our conversation. The full episode and the complete archive of Subversive episodes, including exclusive episodes and my writing, are available on Substack. You can also subscribe to the podcast sans writing on Patreon for a bit less. This is how the show is financed and grows, so I appreciate every contribution! Please subscribe at: https://www.alexkaschuta.com/ https://www.patreon.com/aksubversive Our conversation explores the concept of worldviews as self-contained snow globes that represent specific cardinal virtues. We discuss the four common elements of every worldview: what is good, where good and bad come from, who deserves good, and how to do good. The conversation also delves into the challenges of understanding and evaluating different worldviews, the role of in-group signaling, and the importance of understanding other perspectives. We also discuss Valueism as a life philosophy based on intrinsic values and effective action to increase them, the decline of traditional religion, the search for alternative forms of community and meaning, group differences, and the extremes of the distribution, language ambiguity, and imprecision used to hide behind claims and avoid accountability - and much more. Spencer Greenberg is the founder of ClearerThinking.org and Spark Wave and host of the Clearer Thinking podcast. A few notes on things mentioned in our chat: Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg (podcast) - a recent episode with Sasha Chapin: https://podcast.clearerthinking.org/episode/215/sasha-chapin-raising-our-happiness-baseline/  The Intrinsic Values Test: https://programs.clearerthinking.org/intrinsic_values_test.html Valuism: doing what you value as a life philosophy: https://www.spencergreenberg.com/2023/02/doing-what-you-value-as-a-way-of-life-an-introduction-to-valuism/ A theory of worldviews: https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/understand-how-other-people-think-a-theory-of-worldviews Clearer Thinking's 80 free tools on topics like critical thinking, decision-making, etc.: https://www.clearerthinking.org/tools Oversimplified vs. Difference Deniers: https://www.spencergreenberg.com/2023/12/oversimplifiers-vs-difference-deniers-a-dynamic-regarding-group-differences-that-leads-to-rage-and-confusion/ Tails in distributions: https://x.com/SpencrGreenberg/status/1795806828015837226 Precision and measurability as B.S. detectors: https://x.com/SpencrGreenberg/status/1804923269092442580 Chapters 00:00 Exploring Worldviews as Self-Contained Snow Globes 01:20 The Four Elements of Every Worldview 29:09 The Decline of Traditional Religion and the Search for Meaning 30:40 Adapting Religions to Modern Ideas 31:37 The Appeal of Traditional and Hardcore Religion 32:25 Interpretations and Sects within Religions 34:38 Constant Splitting and Factionalism in Online Communities 36:05 Balancing Group Differences and Individual Assessments 40:02 Understanding Average Group Differences 41:55 The Power of Language Ambiguity and Imprecision 54:19 Recognizing and Overcoming Biases --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aksubversive/message

I have data from two big Internet surveys, Less Wrong 2014 and Clearer Thinking 2023. Both asked questions about IQ: The average LessWronger reported their IQ as 138. The average ClearerThinking user reported their IQ as 130. These are implausibly high. Only 1/200 people has an IQ of 138 or higher. 1/50 people have IQ 130, but the ClearerThinking survey used crowdworkers (eg Mechanical Turk) who should be totally average. Okay, fine, so people lie about their IQ (or foolishly trust fake Internet IQ tests). Big deal, right? But these don't look like lies. Both surveys asked for SAT scores, which are known to correspond to IQ. The LessWrong average was 1446, corresponding to IQ 140. The ClearerThinking average was 1350, corresponding to IQ 134. People seem less likely to lie about their SATs, and least likely of all to optimize their lies for getting IQ/SAT correspondences right. And the Less Wrong survey asked people what test they based their estimates off of. Some people said fake Internet IQ tests. But other people named respected tests like the WAIS, WISC, and Stanford-Binet, or testing sessions by Mensa (yes, I know you all hate Mensa, but their IQ tests are considered pretty accurate). The subset of about 150 people who named unimpeachable tests had slightly higher IQ (average 140) than everyone else. Thanks to Spencer Greenberg of ClearerThinking, I think I'm finally starting to make progress in explaining what's going on. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-mystery-of-internet-survey-iqs 

Bringing a much needed calming zen influence to the Vayse Institute of Over Thinking and Catastrophic Worry, Hine and Buckley welcome therapist and former Tibetan Buddhist monk, Roger Jayamanne to the podcast. Roger leads Hine and Buckley through a quest which is thousands of years and many life cycles old as they discuss his life within the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and what it actually teaches: was the Buddha a real person? Is life just sorrow and suffering? What is the Tao?... and he divulges some of the weirder, reality-defying experiences he has had on his travels including mind reading, a monk's arm stretching to six feet long and a lama summoning a parliament of owls as a spiritual escort to Edinburgh Airport... (recorded 13 November 2023) Thanks to Roger for putting up with our frenzied anxiety and thanks as always to Keith for the show notes. Roger Jayamanne Online Jaya counselling website (https://jayacounselling.co.uk/) The Wellbeing Evolution YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@thewellbeingevolution5113/videos) The Wellbeing Evolution on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/the_wellbeing_evolution/) Roger's Counselling Directory profile (https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/roger-jayamanne) Practical Techniques for Self-Discovery & Embracing Awareness with Roger Jayamanne, Therapy Talks podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/practical-techniques-for-self-discovery-embracing-awareness/id1607765524?i=1000633375551) Introduction Dharma - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma) Reincarnation - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation) Nirvana (concept) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana) [Nirvana (band) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band) Green Day - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Day) Tibetan Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism) Roger's early exposure to Buddhism History of Buddhism in the UK - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_United_Kingdom#History_of_Buddhism_in_the_UK) The Buddha - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Buddha) Buddhist meditation - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_meditation) Sri Lanka - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka) Batik - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik) Sri Lanka's Batik Industry - SriLankaBusiness.com (https://www.srilankabusiness.com/blog/sri_lankas_batik_industry.html) Carl Jung - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung) Dream - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream) Collective unconscious - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious) Jungian archetypes - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes) Neurology - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurology) Bardo - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo) Karma in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism) Karma in Tibetan Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Tibetan_Buddhism) Deja vu - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu) Haven't We Met Before? Uncanny “past life” memories - PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rediscovering-love/201505/haven-t-we-met) Nyingma - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyingma) Esoteric transmission (Wang, Lung, and Tri) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_transmission) Vajracharya (Buddhist priest) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajracharya) Yurt - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt) Tibetan Plateau - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Plateau) Householder (Buddhism) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Householder_(Buddhism)) Buddhist monasticism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_monasticism) Buddhahood - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhahood) Nondualism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism) What is Buddhism? Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism) Dharma - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma) Religion - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion) Godhead - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhead) Noble Eightfold Path - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path) [Merit (Buddhism) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_(Buddhism) Karma in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KarmainBuddhism) Karma in Tibetan Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KarmainTibetanBuddhism) Buddhist meditation - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhistmeditation) The Buddha - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheBuddha) Theravada - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theravada) Vajrayana - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajrayana) Snakes and Ladders - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakesandladders) Rebirth: The Tibetan Game of Liberation - HimalayanArt.org (https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1524) Samsara - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra) Thangka (painting) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thangka) Bhavacakra (Wheel of Life) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra) Bodhisattva - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva) Allen Greenfield on Twitter (https://twitter.com/allengreenfield) Ascended master - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascended_master) Fungus - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus) Christianity - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity) Heaven - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven) Paradise - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise) [Lineage (Buddhism) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineage_(Buddhism) Bible Belt - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt) Who is the Buddha? The Buddha - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Buddha) Bodh Gaya - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodh_Gaya) Enlightenment in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_in_Buddhism) Hinduism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism) Vishnu - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu) Gautama Buddha in Hinduism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha_in_Hinduism) Nepal - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal) Shakya - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakya) Four sights (senescence, disease, demise, asceticism) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_sights) Duhkha:Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%E1%B8%A5kha#Buddhism) Garden of Eden: parallel concepts - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden#Parallel_concepts) How to Leave Your Comfort Zone and Enter Your ‘Growth Zone' - PositivePsychology.com (https://positivepsychology.com/comfort-zone/) Eastern spirituality in the West Buddhist meditation - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_meditation) Yoga - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga) Mindfulness - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness) The Truth About Western Cultural Appropriation of Eastern Spirituality - FairObserver.com (https://www.fairobserver.com/blog/the-truth-about-western-cultural-appropriation-of-eastern-spirituality/) Shamanic Initiations - RealitySandwich.com (https://realitysandwich.com/shamanic-initiations/) The Wisdom of Uncertainty - Tricycle.org (https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-uncertainty/) Cartesianism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesianism) Mechanism (philosophy) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_(philosophy)) Reductionism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductionism) Determinism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism) Scientific Revolution - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Revolution) Chaos Theory - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory) Mind - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind) The three types of binary thinking - ClearerThinking.org (https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/the-three-types-of-binary-thinking) Intuition - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition) Left Brain vs. Right Brain: Hemisphere Function - SimplyPsychology.org (https://www.simplypsychology.org/left-brain-vs-right-brain.html) Whispers of the Night: Deciphering Dreams in Different Cultures - TheSiteOfYOurDreams.com (https://thesiteofyourdreams.com/dreams-in-different-cultures/) The Fine Line Between Reality and Imaginary - Nautil.us (https://nautil.us/the-fine-line-between-reality-and-imaginary-238266/) Why imagination is essential for effective counselling by Roger Jayamanne, Counselling-Directory.org (https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/memberarticles/why-imagination-is-essential-for-effective-counselling) What are dreams? Dreams in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream#Buddhist) Archetype - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype) Precognition - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precognition) Can Two People Have the Same Dream?, PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201606/can-two-people-have-the-same-dream) Dream interpretation - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_interpretation) Can Dreams Connect You to a Spiritual Reality? - PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-act-be/201908/can-dreams-connect-you-to-a-spiritual-reality) David Lynch - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch) Understanding creative intuition, Journal of Creativity - ScienceDirect.com (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2713374521000066) Andrei Tarkovsky - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky) Tao (Dao) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao) Taoism (Daoism) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism) Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching) Wu wei (inaction): Daoist development - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei#Daoist_development) When Unconscious, the Brain Is Anything but ‘Silent' - NeuroscienceNews.com (https://neurosciencenews.com/unconscious-brain-activity-20571/) Serotonin - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin) Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_serotonin_reuptake_inhibitor) Overprescribing Drugs to Treat Mental Health Problems - PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-worry/201401/overprescribing-drugs-treat-mental-health-problems) Is it true that "life is suffering"? Four Noble Truths - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths) Duhkha (suffering):Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%E1%B8%A5kha) Does Everything Contain Its Opposite? - PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/connecting-coincidence/202207/does-everything-contain-its-opposite) Yin and Yang - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang) Kahlil Gibran: On Joy and Sorrow - PoemAnalysis.com (https://poemanalysis.com/kahlil-gibran/on-joy-and-sorrow/) Post-industrial society - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-industrial_society) Addiction - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction) Dopamine - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine) Pre-frontal cortex - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex) Late stage capitalism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism) Wernicke's area (neurology) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke's_area) Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito,_ergo_sum) Rene Descartes - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes) What is the Dao? Tao (Dao) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao) Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching) Tao: The Great Mother - tao-mother.org (http://tao-mother.org/) Sunyata - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81) Dharma and the Tao: how Buddhism and Daoism have influenced each other - BuddhaWeekly.com (https://buddhaweekly.com/dharma-and-the-tao-how-buddhism-and-daoism-have-influenced-each-other-why-zen-and-taoism-can-be-compliementary/) Taoism (Daoism) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism) Mahayana - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana) Catholic Church: Doctrine - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church#Doctrine) Judeo-Christian - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Christian) Karma in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism) Conceptions of god - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptions_of_God) Psychedelic drug - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_drug) Heaven - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven) Enlightenment in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_in_Buddhism) Buddhism and the simulation hypothesis Reality in Buddhism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_in_Buddhism) Simulation hypothesis - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis) Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics) Overview of Divisions of Phenomena - StudyBuddhism.com (https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/types-of-phenomena/overview-of-divisions-of-phenomena) The Tao of Physics (book) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Physics) Maya (religion, “illusion”) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(religion)) The world could be an illusion or simulation - TheArchitect.global (https://www.thearchitect.global/eastern-religions-and-simulation-theory-part-2-the-world-could-be-an-illusion/) Thought experiment - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment) Minecraft - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft) Śūnyatā (emptiness) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81) Mahayana - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana) The Ten Levels of the Bodhisattva - BuddhaJourney.net (https://buddhajourney.net/the-ten-levels-of-the-bodhisattva/) The Matrix - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix) The Matrix: Neo sees the code (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pYyzolIN3I) Siddhi - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi) Kirtan (musically recited story in Indian traditions) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtan) Khenpo - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khenpo) Maras - tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com (http://tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Four_maras) Barn Owl - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_owl) Himalayas - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas) How to start with Buddhism and meditation How to practice Buddhism - OneMindDharma.com (https://oneminddharma.com/how-to-practice-buddhism/) Letting Go: Understanding Attachment from a Buddhist Perspective - Zen-Buddhism.net (https://www.zen-buddhism.net/letting-go-understanding-attachment-in-buddhism/) Learning formless meditation - InstrinsicSelf.us (https://intrinsicself.us/learning-formless-meditation/) Peter Hine and Stephen Buckley, Dreams, Nightmares and Pan - Spirit Box podcast S2 #18 (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s2-18-peter-hine-and-stephen-buckley-dreams/id1504757824?i=1000622843537) Follow the breath - TheGregariousHermit.com (https://thegregarioushermit.com/meditation/meditation-boot-camp/11-follow-the-breath) How to Perform Body Scan Meditation - PositivePsychology.com (https://positivepsychology.com/body-scan-meditation/) Mindfulness - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness) Mindfulness and Being Present in the Moment - PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/trauma-and-hope/201801/mindfulness-and-being-present-in-the-moment) Zazen - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen) Roger's (and Hine's) recommendations Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Mind%2C_Beginner's_Mind) Not Always So: Practising the True Spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki, Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238843.Not_Always_So) Shunryū Suzuki, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunry%C5%AB_Suzuki) The Master and His Emissary - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary) Siddhartha (novel) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52036.Siddhartha) The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1362979.The_Sun_of_Wisdom) Buckley's closing question Dalai Lama - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama) Bartleby (1970 film) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby_(1970_film)) Bartleby (1970) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrREmd4ds_w) My Dinner with Andre (1981 film) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Dinner_with_Andre) My Dinner with Andre (1981) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4lvOjiHFw0) Ghostbusters (1984 film) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters) Ghostbusters (1984) | Official Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQAljlSmjC8) Vayse Online Vayse website (https://www.vayse.co.uk/) Vayse on Twitter (https://twitter.com/vayseesyav) Vayse on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vayseesyav/) Music From Vayse - Volume 1 by Polypores (https://vayse.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-vayse-volume-1) Vayse on Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/vayse) Vayse email: vayseinfo@gmail.com Special Guest: Roger Jayamanne.

Spencer Greenberg is a mathematician, a writer and the founder of ClearerThinking.org First we make our habits, and then our habits make us. But what is the best way to step into this recursive loop and take charge of the most powerful force in our lives? Thankfully Spencer just completed a huge new study testing tons of different techniques. Expect to learn how useful personality tests are, Spencer's biggest insights from 450 people trying every habit strategy ever invented, how you can better integrate your subconscious into decision making, why becoming wise is genuinely important, how useful intuition really is, when you should trust your gut and when you should override it and much more... Sponsors: Get 10% discount on all Gymshark's products at https://bit.ly/sharkwisdom (use code: MW10) Get over 37% discount on all products site-wide from MyProtein at https://bit.ly/proteinwisdom (use code: MODERNWISDOM)  Get 20% discount on House Of Macadamias' nuts at https://houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom (use code MW20) Extra Stuff: Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom - Get in touch. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Understanding the two most common mental health problems in the world, published by spencerg on July 7, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Co-authored with Amanda Metskas This is a linkpost from ClearerThinking.org. We've included some excerpts of the article below, but you can read the full post here. Chances are, your life has been impacted by anxiety disorders or depression, either through your direct experience or through the impact they have had on your loved ones. Anxiety and depression are the two most common mental health conditions in the world, but they are frequently misunderstood. Previous EA Mental Health surveys (2023, 2021, and 2018) have also highlighted the importance of these topics to people in the community who take the surveys. In this data-based essay, we aim to help you better understand anxiety and depression, as well as the hidden links between them. By improving your understanding of these disorders, you may find it easier to recognize anxiety and depression in yourself and be more effective at supporting people in your life who experience these conditions. This infographic summarizes some of our interesting findings about the differences and similarities between anxiety and depression (click here to see the infographic at full size). The scale of both anxiety and depression is vast: the World Health Organization estimates that 301 million people worldwide suffer from an anxiety disorder, and 280 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Worldwide, depression ranks as the second largest cause of disability, and anxiety ranks eighth, according to analyses of the most recent Global Burden of Disease study. And yet, despite their prevalence and severe impacts, humanity's scientific understanding has a substantial way to go to fully understand and highly reliably treat these conditions. Improved treatment and management techniques could make a huge difference in the quality of life of hundreds of millions of people around the world. These astounding statistics have motivated us to run our own studies investigating how these conditions work and how they relate to each other. This article will explain what we found! Overlapping Disorders A major obstacle to understanding anxiety and depression is that they often go together - many people who experience one also experience the other. Approximately 45% of people who experience a depressive disorder in their lifetime also experience an anxiety disorder, and these often occur during the same timeframe. Among people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, about 43% of them will also experience depression in their lifetime. In one of our own studies, we found that commonly used measures of anxiety and depression (the GAD7 and PHQ9 scales) had shockingly high correlations (r=0.82). These strong links between anxiety and depression can make it more difficult to disentangle how each of these disorders works and make it more difficult for a person with anxiety and depression to effectively manage their conditions. Some people even think they have an anxiety disorder when it's more accurate to say they have a depressive disorder or the reverse. The co-occurrence of anxiety and depression is a bit puzzling because they almost seem like opposites when experienced in the moment. A high level of anxiety often feels like being “wound up” - muscle tension, rapid heart rate, and chest tightness are among the most common physical symptoms. People experiencing anxiety may have a nervous energy that makes it difficult for them to relax, even if there is nothing they can practically do to address whatever is making them anxious. Depression, on the other hand, often feels like struggling to muster energy or motivation to care about things enough to take any action at all. Doing things, including things that a perso...

Read the full transcript here. What are the main categories of interpersonal relationship problems? What's really going on when most people say they have a "communication" problem? What are the criteria for being a good listener? What's the "right" amount of conflict to have in a healthy relationship? How can we best express our wants and needs? What sorts of requests are reasonable (or not) to make of our relationship partners? People can get along just fine when they differ on little things, like the best flavor of ice cream; but how can people maintain relationships when they have deep differences in their core values?Jayson Gaddis is an author, relationship expert, and coach who teaches people the one class they didn't get in school: "How To Do Relationships." Jayson leads one of the most in-depth and comprehensive relationship educational programs and trains relationship coaches all over the world. Jayson is the host of The Relationship School Podcast, the founder of The Relationship School, and the author of Getting to Zero: How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships. Learn more about Jayson and his work via these links:Jayson:jaysongaddis.comFacebookInstagramThe Relationship School:relationshipschool.comFacebookInstagramFurther reading:"Interested in improving your relationships? Try Nonviolent Communication" by ClearerThinking.orgGetting to Zero by Jayson Gaddis [Read more]

Read the full transcriptWhat are the main categories of interpersonal relationship problems? What's really going on when most people say they have a "communication" problem? What are the criteria for being a good listener? What's the "right" amount of conflict to have in a healthy relationship? How can we best express our wants and needs? What sorts of requests are reasonable (or not) to make of our relationship partners? People can get along just fine when they differ on little things, like the best flavor of ice cream; but how can people maintain relationships when they have deep differences in their core values?Jayson Gaddis is an author, relationship expert, and coach who teaches people the one class they didn't get in school: "How To Do Relationships." Jayson leads one of the most in-depth and comprehensive relationship educational programs and trains relationship coaches all over the world. Jayson is the host of The Relationship School Podcast, the founder of The Relationship School, and the author of Getting to Zero: How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships. Learn more about Jayson and his work via these links:Jayson:jaysongaddis.comFacebookInstagramThe Relationship School:relationshipschool.comFacebookInstagramFurther reading:"Interested in improving your relationships? Try Nonviolent Communication" by ClearerThinking.orgGetting to Zero by Jayson Gaddis

What are the main categories of interpersonal relationship problems? What's really going on when most people say they have a "communication" problem? What are the criteria for being a good listener? What's the "right" amount of conflict to have in a healthy relationship? How can we best express our wants and needs? What sorts of requests are reasonable (or not) to make of our relationship partners? People can get along just fine when they differ on little things, like the best flavor of ice cream; but how can people maintain relationships when they have deep differences in their core values?Jayson Gaddis is an author, relationship expert, and coach who teaches people the one class they didn't get in school: "How To Do Relationships." Jayson leads one of the most in-depth and comprehensive relationship educational programs and trains relationship coaches all over the world. Jayson is the host of The Relationship School Podcast, the founder of The Relationship School, and the author of Getting to Zero: How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships. Learn more about Jayson and his work via these links:Jayson:jaysongaddis.comFacebookInstagramThe Relationship School:relationshipschool.comFacebookInstagramFurther reading:"Interested in improving your relationships? Try Nonviolent Communication" by ClearerThinking.orgGetting to Zero by Jayson Gaddis

How can we change the way we think about expertise (or the trustworthiness of any information source) using forecasting? How do prediction markets work? How can we use prediction markets in our everyday lives? Are prediction markets more trustworthy than large or respectable news outlets? How long does it take to sharpen one's prediction skills? In (e.g.) presidential elections, we know that the winner will be one person from a very small list of people; but how can we reasonably make predictions in cases where the outcomes aren't obviously multiple-choice (e.g., predicting when artificial general intelligence will be created)? How can we move from the world we have now to a world in which people think more quantitatively and make much better predictions? What scoring rules should we use to keep track of our predictions and update accordingly?Peter Wildeford is the co-CEO of Rethink Priorities, where he aims to scalably employ a large number of well-qualified researchers to work on the world's most important problems. Prior to running Rethink Priorities, he was a data scientist in industry for five years at DataRobot, Avant, Clearcover, and other companies. He is also recognized as a Top 50 Forecaster on Metaculus (international forecasting competition) and has a Triple Master Rank on Kaggle (international data science competition) with top 1% performance in five different competitions. Follow him on Twitter at @peterwildeford.Further reading:ClearerThinking.org's "Calibrate Your Judgment" practice programMetaculus (forecasting platform)Manifold MarketsPolymarket"Calibration Scoring Rules for Practical Prediction Training", a paper by Spencer Greenberg

Read the full transcript here. How can we change the way we think about expertise (or the trustworthiness of any information source) using forecasting? How do prediction markets work? How can we use prediction markets in our everyday lives? Are prediction markets more trustworthy than large or respectable news outlets? How long does it take to sharpen one's prediction skills? In (e.g.) presidential elections, we know that the winner will be one person from a very small list of people; but how can we reasonably make predictions in cases where the outcomes aren't obviously multiple-choice (e.g., predicting when artificial general intelligence will be created)? How can we move from the world we have now to a world in which people think more quantitatively and make much better predictions? What scoring rules should we use to keep track of our predictions and update accordingly?Peter Wildeford is the co-CEO of Rethink Priorities, where he aims to scalably employ a large number of well-qualified researchers to work on the world's most important problems. Prior to running Rethink Priorities, he was a data scientist in industry for five years at DataRobot, Avant, Clearcover, and other companies. He is also recognized as a Top 50 Forecaster on Metaculus (international forecasting competition) and has a Triple Master Rank on Kaggle (international data science competition) with top 1% performance in five different competitions. Follow him on Twitter at @peterwildeford.Further reading:ClearerThinking.org's "Calibrate Your Judgment" practice programMetaculus (forecasting platform)Manifold MarketsPolymarket"Calibration Scoring Rules for Practical Prediction Training", a paper by Spencer Greenberg [Read more]

Read the full transcriptHow can we change the way we think about expertise (or the trustworthiness of any information source) using forecasting? How do prediction markets work? How can we use prediction markets in our everyday lives? Are prediction markets more trustworthy than large or respectable news outlets? How long does it take to sharpen one's prediction skills? In (e.g.) presidential elections, we know that the winner will be one person from a very small list of people; but how can we reasonably make predictions in cases where the outcomes aren't obviously multiple-choice (e.g., predicting when artificial general intelligence will be created)? How can we move from the world we have now to a world in which people think more quantitatively and make much better predictions? What scoring rules should we use to keep track of our predictions and update accordingly?Peter Wildeford is the co-CEO of Rethink Priorities, where he aims to scalably employ a large number of well-qualified researchers to work on the world's most important problems. Prior to running Rethink Priorities, he was a data scientist in industry for five years at DataRobot, Avant, Clearcover, and other companies. He is also recognized as a Top 50 Forecaster on Metaculus (international forecasting competition) and has a Triple Master Rank on Kaggle (international data science competition) with top 1% performance in five different competitions. Follow him on Twitter at @peterwildeford.Further reading:ClearerThinking.org's "Calibrate Your Judgment" practice programMetaculus (forecasting platform)Manifold MarketsPolymarket"Calibration Scoring Rules for Practical Prediction Training", a paper by Spencer Greenberg

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: 14 Techniques to Accelerate Your Learning, published by spencerg on May 19, 2022 on LessWrong. Originally written by Belén Cobeta and Spencer Greenberg from ClearerThinking.org. Revised by Teis Rasmussen & Florence Hinder from ThoughtSaver.com. This is a cross-post from the Effective Altruism Forum. TLDR: There are a number of techniques that may accelerate the speed at which you learn (14 of which we explain in this article). Additionally, embedded within this article are flashcards to provide you with the key takeaways so you can remember these ideas and more effectively put them into action. Vasconcelos Library — photo by Diego Delso What if you could learn more in less time? Whether you're studying to pass your classes, aiming to improve at work, honing your personal life skills, or focusing on having the greatest impact you can, learning to learn more efficiently can be a great time investment because it accelerates the rest of your learning. Many learning methods are inefficient Many widespread learning practices waste a lot of time and effort, at least if we assume that the goal of those efforts is to actually learn. For example, you have probably had the experience of reading an exciting and useful piece of nonfiction, only to forget basically all of it and not take any action based on what you learned from it. And you've probably spent a lot of time taking classes that taught information that mostly wasn't useful to you, and which you no longer remember either way. It's unfortunate that such experiences are as common as they are. The good news is that there are more efficient and powerful learning practices out there - many of us just don't adopt them. Here we lay out 14 of our favorite techniques for improving your learning processes. They are grouped into four categories: Learn faster Boost understanding Remember more Put your learning into practice Part 1: LEARN FASTER This section will cover techniques that can help you absorb more information or knowledge per hour that you spend learning. 1. Listening instead of reading Listening is the new reading: take advantage of technology by listening to books and articles. It may feel less studious than reading, but at least some research shows that you can learn and retain just the same. The intonation of the narrator can also help you understand the text. Use the Audible version of the book or text-to-speech software and set the reading speed to a level that feels challenging but still allows you to understand the content. In time, your listening speed may become faster than your reading speed, as you go from listening at 1x to 2x and beyond. Some people even claim that faster speeds can improve comprehension to a degree because they require greater focus and so can prevent the mind from wandering. Another advantage of audio over regular reading is that you can do other activities that don't use your conscious mind at the same time, like taking out the trash, walking outdoors, washing the dishes, or taking a bath. Check out The Nonlinear Library for audio-versions of content from blogs such as the EA Forum, Alignment Forum, and LessWrong. 2. Immersive reading Why choose between listening and reading when you can do both? Try Emerson Spartz´s #1 speed reading hack: read a book using the printed and the audible version simultaneously (that is, read with your eyes WHILE you're also listening). By engaging two senses at once, your focus and reading speed may increase. It takes some practice, so be sure to try this method for at least a few hours before deciding if it's right for you (people who just try it for one hour are unlikely to see a benefit). To get the full benefit, you'll also want to push the speed of the audio to the upper edge of what feels comfortable to you. 3. Recursive sampling Use this technique t...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: 14 Techniques to Accelerate Your Learning, published by spencerg on May 19, 2022 on LessWrong. Originally written by Belén Cobeta and Spencer Greenberg from ClearerThinking.org. Revised by Teis Rasmussen & Florence Hinder from ThoughtSaver.com. This is a cross-post from the Effective Altruism Forum. TLDR: There are a number of techniques that may accelerate the speed at which you learn (14 of which we explain in this article). Additionally, embedded within this article are flashcards to provide you with the key takeaways so you can remember these ideas and more effectively put them into action. Vasconcelos Library — photo by Diego Delso What if you could learn more in less time? Whether you're studying to pass your classes, aiming to improve at work, honing your personal life skills, or focusing on having the greatest impact you can, learning to learn more efficiently can be a great time investment because it accelerates the rest of your learning. Many learning methods are inefficient Many widespread learning practices waste a lot of time and effort, at least if we assume that the goal of those efforts is to actually learn. For example, you have probably had the experience of reading an exciting and useful piece of nonfiction, only to forget basically all of it and not take any action based on what you learned from it. And you've probably spent a lot of time taking classes that taught information that mostly wasn't useful to you, and which you no longer remember either way. It's unfortunate that such experiences are as common as they are. The good news is that there are more efficient and powerful learning practices out there - many of us just don't adopt them. Here we lay out 14 of our favorite techniques for improving your learning processes. They are grouped into four categories: Learn faster Boost understanding Remember more Put your learning into practice Part 1: LEARN FASTER This section will cover techniques that can help you absorb more information or knowledge per hour that you spend learning. 1. Listening instead of reading Listening is the new reading: take advantage of technology by listening to books and articles. It may feel less studious than reading, but at least some research shows that you can learn and retain just the same. The intonation of the narrator can also help you understand the text. Use the Audible version of the book or text-to-speech software and set the reading speed to a level that feels challenging but still allows you to understand the content. In time, your listening speed may become faster than your reading speed, as you go from listening at 1x to 2x and beyond. Some people even claim that faster speeds can improve comprehension to a degree because they require greater focus and so can prevent the mind from wandering. Another advantage of audio over regular reading is that you can do other activities that don't use your conscious mind at the same time, like taking out the trash, walking outdoors, washing the dishes, or taking a bath. Check out The Nonlinear Library for audio-versions of content from blogs such as the EA Forum, Alignment Forum, and LessWrong. 2. Immersive reading Why choose between listening and reading when you can do both? Try Emerson Spartz´s #1 speed reading hack: read a book using the printed and the audible version simultaneously (that is, read with your eyes WHILE you're also listening). By engaging two senses at once, your focus and reading speed may increase. It takes some practice, so be sure to try this method for at least a few hours before deciding if it's right for you (people who just try it for one hour are unlikely to see a benefit). To get the full benefit, you'll also want to push the speed of the audio to the upper edge of what feels comfortable to you. 3. Recursive sampling Use this technique t...

Will SpaceX land people on Mars in the next decade? Will North Korea give up their nuclear weapons? Will your friend turn up to dinner?Spencer Greenberg, founder of ClearerThinking.org has a process for working out such real life problems.In this conversation from 2018, Spencer walks us through how to reason through difficult questions more accurately, and when we should expect to be overconfident or underconfident. Full transcript, related links, and summary of this interviewThis episode first broadcast on the regular 80,000 Hours Podcast feed on August 7, 2018. Some related episodes include:• #7 – Julia Galef on making humanity more rational, what EA does wrong, and why Twitter isn't all bad• #11 – Dr Spencer Greenberg on speeding up social science 10-fold & why plenty of startups cause harm. • #15 – Prof Tetlock on how chimps beat Berkeley undergrads and when it's wise to defer to the wise• #30 – Dr Eva Vivalt on how little social science findings generalize from one study to another• #40 – Katja Grace on forecasting future technology & how much we should trust expert predictions.• #48 – Brian Christian on better living through the wisdom of computer science• #78 – Danny Hernandez on forecasting and measuring some of the most important drivers of AI progressSeries produced by Keiran Harris.

In this episode we sit down with Spencer Greenberg to discuss how to be better critical thinkers using his FIRE method and other insights from his website, ClearerThinking.org See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spencer Greenberg is a serial founder, mathematician, and social scientist, with a focus on improving human well-being. He is the founder of Uplift and Mind Ease, apps for helping people with anxiety and depression, as well as ClearerThinking.org which provides 40 tools and training programs to improve decision-making. Spencer is also the founder of Spark Wave, a startup foundry that creates novel software products from scratch. Spencer joined Chris to discuss principles and techniques for improving our decision-making and reducing thinking biases. For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunction.com/podcast/spencer-greenberg (forcingfunctionhour.com/spencer-greenberg).  

How to introduce Spencer Greenberg? He’s a man who wears many hats– entrepreneur, doctorate in applied math from New York University, researcher, startup founder, and he’s extremely productive in his spare time, too! He founded Spark Wave, a startup foundry which creates novel software products designed to solve problems in the world. A few of the issues they’ve tackled are scalable care for depression, and technology for improving social science. He also founded ClearerThinking.org, which offers free tools and training programs, that have been used by over 150,000 people, designed to help improve decision-making and reduce biases in people’s thinking.

If we want to improve the world (and ourselves), we need to start by changing the way we live — our habits and behaviors. In this talk, Spencer Greenberg, founder and CEO of ClearerThinking.org, discusses ways that behavior change matters and techniques we can use to get better at it. To learn more about effective … Continue reading EAG 2019 SF: Effective behavior change (Spencer Greenberg)

In today's episode, I spoke with Spencer Greenberg (https://www.spencergreenberg.com/) about the personality differences between men and women, the different intrinsic values liberals and conservatives find most meaningful, power-posing, and social-science reform efforts. Spencer is a mathematician and entrepreneur, as well as s the founder of Spark Wave, a "startup foundry" which creates software designed to help solve problems in the world using social science, and to accelerate and improve social-science research. He also founded ClearerThinking.org (ClearerThinking.org), which offers free tools and training programs geared at improving decision-making, increasing positive behaviors, and reducing cognitive biases. Spencer has a PhD in applied mathematics from NYU, with a specialty in machine learning, and his work has been featured in media outlets like the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Fast Company, and the Financial Times. (Music: Intro: Why? - “The Vowels, Pt. 2” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggqe_uHvrlw); break: Dropkick Murphys - "The Dirty Glass" (https://open.spotify.com/track/2jggiA0przPmYj0Z96W7Q0?si=OUsvugSmT5WZ88Q9S0OC3Q); outro: Field Mouse - "Happy" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNe_9u3SmxY))

In this episode of Deep Talks, I interviewed Spencer Greenberg. Spencer has PhD. from applied math, and he is the founder of Spark Wave, a startup foundry which creates software products designed to solve problems in the world on a large scale. For example UpLift, an automated app for helping people with depression. He also founded ClearerThinking.org, which offers free tools and training programs that have been used by over 150,000 people, designed to help improve decision-making and reduce thinking biases. Spencer's work has been featured by major media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Fast Company, and the Financial Times. ---- Video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIU-Ko8NZSQ ---- PODCAST DEEP TALKS Petr Ludwig, the author of the book The End of Procrastination, invites guests that do something meaningful and together they discuss topics like personal values, purpose at work and life, or how to improve today's society.

In this episode of Deep Talks, I interviewed Spencer Greenberg. Spencer has PhD. from applied math, and he is the founder of Spark Wave, a startup foundry which creates software products designed to solve problems in the world on a large scale. For example UpLift, an automated app for helping people with depression. He also founded ClearerThinking.org, which offers free tools and training programs that have been used by over 150,000 people, designed to help improve decision-making and reduce thinking biases. Spencer's work has been featured by major media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Fast Company, and the Financial Times. Video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP8n1Bkv6f0 ---- PODCAST DEEP TALKS Petr Ludwig, autor knihy Konec prokrastinace, si do podcastu DEEP TALKS zve hosty, se kterými se baví o tématech jako jsou hodnoty, smysl práce/života a tom, co dělat pro lepší českou společnost.

Will Trump be re-elected? Will North Korea give up their nuclear weapons? Will your friend turn up to dinner? Spencer Greenberg, founder of ClearerThinking.org has a process for working out such real life problems. Let’s work through one here: how likely is it that you’ll enjoy listening to this episode? The first step is to figure out your ‘prior probability’; what’s your estimate of how likely you are to enjoy the interview before getting any further evidence? Other than applying common sense, one way to figure this out is called reference class forecasting: looking at similar cases and seeing how often something is true, on average. Spencer is our first ever return guest. So one reference class might be, how many Spencer Greenberg episodes of the 80,000 Hours Podcast have you enjoyed so far? Being this specific limits bias in your answer, but with a sample size of at most 1 - you’d probably want to add more data points to reduce variability. Zooming out, how many episodes of the 80,000 Hours Podcast have you enjoyed? Let’s say you’ve listened to 10, and enjoyed 8 of them. If so 8 out of 10 might be your prior probability. But maybe the two you didn’t enjoy had something in common. If you’ve liked similar episodes in the past, you’d update in favour of expecting to enjoy it, and if you’ve disliked similar episodes in the past, you’d update negatively. You can zoom out further; what fraction of long-form interview podcasts have you ever enjoyed? Then you’d look to update whenever new information became available. Do the topics seem interesting? Did Spencer make a great point in the first 5 minutes? Was this description unbearably self-referential? Speaking of the Question of Evidence: in a world where Spencer was not worth listening to, how likely is it that we’d invite him back for a second episode? Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. We’ll run through several diverse examples, and how to actually work out the changing probabilities as you update. But that’s only a fraction of the conversation. We also discuss: * How could we generate 20-30 new happy thoughts a day? What would that do to our welfare? * What do people actually value? How do EAs differ from non EAs? * Why should we care about the distinction between intrinsic and instrumental values? * Would hedonic utilitarians really want to hook themselves up to happiness machines? * What types of activities are people generally under-confident about? Why? * When should you give a lot of weight to your prior belief? * When should we trust common sense? * Does power posing have any effect? * Are resumes worthless? * Did Trump explicitly collude with Russia? What are the odds of him getting re-elected? * What’s the probability that China and the US go to War in the 21st century? * How should we treat claims of expertise on diets? * Why were Spencer’s friends suspicious of Theranos for years? * How should we think about the placebo effect? * Does a shift towards rationality typically cause alienation from family and friends? How do you deal with that? Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80,000 Hours into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript below. The 80,000 Hours podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.

Can tech be used to improve our mental health & wellbeing?! Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) chat with entrepreneur Spencer Greenberg. Spencer Greenberg is a mathematician, entrepreneur and founder of Spark Wave, a startup foundry which creates novel software products designed to solve problems in the world. Spencer also founded ClearerThinking.org, which offers free tools and training programs designed to help improve decision-making and reduce thinking biases. Spencer's work has been featured on the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Fast Company, and the Financial Times. http://www.spencergreenberg.com/ https://twitter.com/SpencrGreenberg https://www.clearerthinking.org/ (website for improving decision making) https://www.uplift.us (app for people with depression) This episode was recorded at Grand Central Tech. For more info visit their website at: www.grandcentraltech.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/GCTech Funny as Tech is a monthly live panel show and weekly podcast that tackles the thorniest issues in tech! Live shows are performed at the Peoples Improv Theater in Manhattan and podcast interviews at Grand Central Tech. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 https://twitter.com/TechEthicist https://twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

Svetha Janumpalli – Founder & CEO, New Incentives Eric Gastfriend – Founder & CEO, DynamiCare Health Bruce Friedrich – Executive Director, The Good Food Institute; Founding Partner, New Crop Capital Spencer Greenberg – Founder & CEO, Spark Wave; Founder, ClearerThinking.org Source: Effective Altruism Global (video).

Do most meat eaters think it’s wrong to hurt animals? Do Americans think climate change is likely to cause human extinction? What is the best, state-of-the-art therapy for depression? How can we make academics more intellectually honest, so we can actually trust their findings? How can we speed up social science research ten-fold? Do most startups improve the world, or make it worse? If you’re interested in these question, this interview is for you. Click for a full transcript, links discussed in the show, etc. A scientist, entrepreneur, writer and mathematician, Spencer Greenberg is constantly working to create tools to speed up and improve research and critical thinking. These include: * Rapid public opinion surveys to find out what most people actually think about animal consciousness, farm animal welfare, the impact of developing world charities and the likelihood of extinction by various different means; * Tools to enable social science research to be run en masse very cheaply; * ClearerThinking.org, a highly popular site for improving people’s judgement and decision-making; * Ways to transform data analysis methods to ensure that papers only show true findings; * Innovative research methods; * Ways to decide which research projects are actually worth pursuing. In this interview, Spencer discusses all of these and more. If you don’t feel like listening, that just shows that you have poor judgement and need to benefit from his wisdom even more! Get free, one-on-one career advice We’ve helped hundreds of people compare their options, get introductions, and find high impact jobs. If you want to work on any of the problems discussed in this episode, find out if our coaching can help you.