Freedom and Incrementalism
Hello everyone, I hope you are well. I woke up early this morning to find out that we have a new President-Elect of the United States of America. It is my hope that with Joe Biden taking the reins everything can return to normal, that the pandemic will be addressed...
The Puzzle of Liberty
In this letter, I want to make the case for libertarian principles and introduce you to a problem I have been thinking about; *how do we get everyone to cooperate without coercion?*...
A Culture of Conversation
Hello everyone, It feels good to write to you each week like this. I sincerely hope you have been finding benefit in what I have to say. The reason I write these every week is because I have something to say, I have ideas that I believe will benefit others...
The Bigger Picture
Note (2023/5/9): I've changed my mind a lot since I wrote this, I believe I was naive regarding the statistics and the real mechanics behind social change. I will write about this in a future piece. Hello everyone, The world seems to be falling apart. At the risk...
Cloudy with a chance of Coronavirus
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well, both physically and psychologically. Please take all the common-sense steps you can to safeguard your own health and those around you. The first I had heard about the coronavirus was towards the end of January. I was attending a series of...
A Better World
I want you to have the confidence that you can part with more of your income and still live happily and I want you to have the trust that others can solve their problems. Throughout history, we have encountered many problems and have made immense progress in solving them. We can improve the world....
Insert Label Here
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” When we are born, we are given a name. We walk through life with a strong attachment to it, as if something about those syllables revealed who we really are. We pick up many more names on the way. I...
Book Recommendation
The problems we face
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. Here are some questions I would like you to reflect on. * What are our biggest problems? * Where should we direct our time and energy towards? We all want happiness and shirk from suffering. In fact, a problem is essentially a cause...
Effective Altruism and Social Engineering
Hello everyone, I hope you have been doing well. In this week's email, I want to take the time to tell you about Effective Altruism. What is it? The goal of Effective Altruism is summed up pretty well by the title of William Macaskill's book. "Doing Good Better" How can...
The Tragic and Utopian Visions of Human Nature
The Blank Slate is a book about the question of whether we are nature or nurture. Are we born like blank slates to be written on by our life experience or do we have an innate nature that remains consistent through our lives?...
Book Recommendation
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Today's conservatives are more liberal than yesterday's liberals.Steven Pinker
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No two countries with a McDonald's have ever fought in a war.Steven Pinker
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If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.James Madison
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We find that living in a civilization reduces one's chances of being a victim of violence fivefold.Steven Pinker
How far we have come
There are two biases that seem to be affecting all of us for the worse, that I would like to bring to your attention. 1. The Availability Bias[1] We judge the likelihood of events and the state of affairs based on how easily we can recall the data. Think...