Originality is hard. It goes against our instincts: Already in the time of Shakespeare, the word ‘ape’ meant both primate and to imitate. There is this imitation aspect to human nature that runs very deep. It’s how we learn language as kids, it’s how culture gets transmitted.
On social mobility: 10% of Americans will spend at least a year in the top 1% percent. More than 50% of Americans will spent a year in the top 10% percent. h/t Taleb medium.com/incerto/inequa…
Individuals rarely admit mistakes. Groups never do.
Everybody wants to change others. Nobody wants to be changed.
People Are a Force of Nature nav.al/people pic.twitter.com/a0PMllswdp
Humans Are Unique in Our Ability to Understand Things nav.al/understand pic.twitter.com/RjWfU914em
Albert Hirschman writes that the U.S. owes its existence to millions choosing to relocate elsewhere rather than express discontent with the surrounding social order, and that this is a fundamental part of American national character pic.twitter.com/pzQjVO1CL1
Language games and the euphemism treadmill -Vocabulary is like fashion; it must be periodically updated to signal status -Luxury belief: An action is stigmatized because of its label. Not the action itself. Calling a serial killer a saint will remove the stigma from his actions twitter.com/APStylebook/st…
From The Lessons of History (Durant) pic.twitter.com/9rQPn0sdKa
Women are more vigilant about mate guarding (closely monitoring partner to prevent infidelity) if their husbands are wealthy and less vigilant about mate guarding if their husbands are physically attractive amzn.to/3smQSH0 pic.twitter.com/tlYLvaEMRa
"Man's Search for Meaning...over 20 years later, the book's ethos—meaning, the value of suffering, and responsibility to something greater than the self—seems to be at odds with our culture, which is more interested in the pursuit of individual happiness" theatlantic.com/health/archive…
@robkhenderson @ryanburge Few more decades until a trustless society then. >_>
Greater levels of stress, worry, and anxiety are associated with lower levels of happiness but higher levels of meaning "People with very meaningful lives worry more and have more stress than people with less meaningful lives." scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/upl… pic.twitter.com/1c6Za5axgq
"In their same-sex friends, men and women prioritized personality and social intelligence. In their opposite-sex friends, however, men placed greater value on attractiveness, whereas women placed greater value on economic resources and physical prowess" sciencedirect.com/science/articl… pic.twitter.com/DhWxu4btrx
More than 60% of women & men say it would count as sex if their partner had oral contact with someone else's genitals But only about 40% say it would count as sex if they themselves had oral contact with the genitals of someone other than their partner amzn.to/3n72eha pic.twitter.com/cArfQ2ySLe
Why going to a play is a status symbol but going to the cinema is not www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Facu… pic.twitter.com/vE3PmO53SR
"What do you think is more important in life?" Do things that give you personal satisfaction/pleasure: Very liberal: 66% Moderate: 49% Very conservative: 33% To work hard and do what is expected of you: Very liberal: 31% Mod: 49% Very conservative: 65% cato.org/publications/s…
@RobertGreene @sapinker @CeliaHeyes @AnnieDuke @amychua @RobertCialdini @mattwridley @NAChristakis @SteveStuWill Sex, Power and Partisanship amzn.to/2QcMNE0 “primates lower on the hierarchy have a fitness incentive to adopt political philosophies that seek to right power imbalances..those same primates also have an incentive to revert to a hierarchical order once they assume power” pic.twitter.com/kQLOeo1LLY
The universality of 'Rags to Riches' 📚The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker pic.twitter.com/U8H04jRjtQ
Explicit rules allow regular people to play the game Implicit rules filter out those not “in the know” Simple example: Dress codes Lack of dress code means only those with insider knowledge understand which attire is appropriate The others mark themselves as outsiders twitter.com/Alephwyr/statu…
Paul Meehl, who wrote a landmark book in 1954 about how statistical models are superior to human judgment, was also a practicing psychoanalyst with a picture of Freud hung in his office. Meehl also insisted "there is something to telepathy." amzn.to/3xJVY3P pic.twitter.com/EfVWrg7YEr
Among US college students, "In a rare case of ideological agreement, whereas 90 percent of both liberals and conservatives say liberals are free to express their opinions, only 60 percent of both liberals and conservatives say the same about conservatives" cambridge.org/core/journals/… pic.twitter.com/pqLObR6nWi
84% of rich Americans report that they pay attention to politics "most of the time" Asked how many days a week they talk politics; median response was 5 days "Wealthy Americans tend to be highly active in politics, far more so than the typical citizen" faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jnd260/cab/CA… pic.twitter.com/KFdcoickRn
Researchers had people make decisions & built statistical models based on how each person made decisions. The models were a crude approximation of the people. When they later made predictions, models outperformed humans. A model of you is better than you amzn.to/3vKdMtX pic.twitter.com/0IlauWRKxF
-Listeners heard speakers use either filler words (eg "um"), no filler (smooth speech), or brief pauses -Smooth speech rated most eloquent; filler words & brief pauses rated equally eloquent -Listeners rated filler words as more relaxed than brief pauses link.springer.com/article/10.100… pic.twitter.com/VEf8paloWA
AVClub TV review commenter (handle "Zodiac Motherfucker") on the themes of The Sopranos: pic.twitter.com/rjDEcyNyBD
Not uncommon to see affluent people who feel nervous about their positions invoke the destitute lives of their parents or grandparents Someday my kids are gonna use my life as some kind of card to pull
Intra-elite competition amzn.to/3g9B2gr pic.twitter.com/JQRNhyfUxj
Reading Kahneman's newly released book "Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment" at the exact time universities are eliminating standardized testing requirements reminds me of this distinction @robinhanson made between experts and elites twitter.com/robkhenderson/…
"The Age Thirty Transition is frequently a time of crisis. At the end of the twenties...many relationships, goals, and values come into question...The twenties and thirties are perhaps the most stressful decades in the life cycle" amzn.to/3s4QcFS pic.twitter.com/TqW7ipnxeZ
