12 Comments

Happy to see the love for Robert Wright. I'd really love to see you elaborate on your disagreements with Nonzero, I recently read part of it and have been quite struck by it. There's a lot in it I can see to criticize, but there's a lot I find really thought-provoking or helpful for making sense of things. It's really influenced my thinking about the co-development of states and religions (along with The Evolution of God).

I'd really appreciate a critical take on it from someone (like you) that I respect. Or if you could direct me to any critiques that you like.

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I should write about it sometime

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Dec 19, 2021·edited Dec 19, 2021

The first unpaid post that I found on that substack is not encouraging:

"Could we—if there were enough of us—alter those incentives? Could we use social media, particularly Twitter, to give elites consequential amounts of negative reinforcement for doing things that exacerbate tribalism? And give them like amounts of positive reinforcement for more laudable behavior?"

The only thing you can do to help ameliorate tribalism that involves twitter is to stop using twitter, as Freddie has so wisely done. That's it.

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Yeah, I wasn't super impressed by that bit either. I'd still strongly recommend looking into his work.

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I will read some more.

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Though I do not agree with your conclusion. That's a great individual solution, but it really helps more with your own mental health than with the problem of social media and tribalism.

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The abandonment of ad-based social media is necessary so that something better can replace it. Each person that stops using it and points out what a massive shitstain on humanity it is helps that process along a very tiny bit more. I understand that lots of people aren't privileged enough not to use ad-based social media tho, and that sucks.

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Hey, speaking of Dickens, are you still planning on doing a post about A Christmas Carol? I’ve been looking forward to it! I also happen to be reading it to my kids right now so I’m especially curious to read your thoughts.

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Yep! Next week. Pushed back by circumstance.

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Thanks for the Erin McKeown tip. I hadn't heard of her. I'm going to see if there are any high(er) quality FLAC or streams out there. Maybe Tidal Masters or Spotify Hi-Fi.

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You were almost freed from the burden of making your awful NFL picks.

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I’d be interested in your take on Nonzero the book.

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