5 ideas that most impact my life perspective

April 04, 2021

Recently, I was trying to think of a finite list of the most important ideas I’ve encountered recently. This is my attempt to flesh out these thoughts, and I kinda just like to share these ideas with people who know me.

  1. Numeric misinformation
  2. Determinism
  3. Street epistemology
  4. Stoicism
  5. Financial independence

1. Numeric misinformation

I consider this the most under-rated problem in modern society, and it produces my most characteristic rants. The key idea is: We often will cite a claim with some sort of “science” or “data” backing it up, and therefore feel very confident in its conclusion and diss others if they don’t agree. HOWEVER. There is a big assumption that the data analysis was rigorous and unbiased, which as I learned through grad school, work, and media fact-checks, is often not the case. An example many of you will readily accept is misleading statistics that claim that crime rates are higher by illegal immigrants. But of course, this issue isn’t limited to right-wing media, or media in general.

I think the problem is much less appreciated in academia (other than by jaded PhD students). When academics complain about public distrust in science, I think it’s our own fault to a significant extent. Rather than being dogmatic and dismissive, if we are more nuanced, I think skepticism could be less pervasive. A proclivity toward dogma, along with dismissing others who don’t agree with us is a bad combination (see #3).

Numeric misinformation is going to be very hard to address because it requires significant effort and organization. In order to effectively expose someone else’s statistic as bullshit, we often need access to the raw data, honest data collection procedures, and the expertise to analyze it (which may be nontrivial in complicated scientific fields). And unfortunately, this information is usually not readily available because there is little incentive for people to share this detailed information, as it comes along with the risk of being proven wrong.

A second major reason numeric misinformation is going to be hard to fight is because it thrives on both confirmation bias and publication bias. It’s very concerning if we can see a headline and think “there’s no way this would be published if the data pointed in the opposite direction.”

I think NewsGuard is a good first step at trying to combat this issue. I also think some sort of structurally organized debate forum would be helpful, if it was significantly used. If people could read the best points and counterpoints from both sides right next to each other, I think it would make discourse much more productive and honest, allow people to better understand different perspectives, and decrease division in society.

Good resources

2. Determinism

My feelings toward people have been most influenced by the conclusion that the natural feeling of conscious agency that I have is misleading. In other words, “there is no free will,” and “we are not the authors of our thoughts.”

Sam Harris wrote an essay justifying this perspective, but I’ll try to justify my conclusion briefly with the following logic. The neural processes that computed each decision in my life were the product of genetics, environment, and past neural processes. These are all governed by deterministic physical principles, which are affected by higher level cognition only in ways I cannot consciously control. Whether or not there exists random physical processes (e.g. ion channel opening) is often brought up as a counterargument, but is beside the point, as this randomness would not lead to the agency I consciously feel.

So why is this so important to me? Many think this is pointless, or even dangerous, to consider. For one, the acknowledgement of no free will has made me much more sympathetic with others. If I think someone’s behavior is ignorant or mean or stupid, I fully recognize that they are just a product of their genetics and upbringing. Racists and sociopaths are a detriment to society, but they are also very unlucky to be who they are. Rather than hate them, I truly feel bad for them, and I hope they can be helped. Because I know that if I inhabited the conscious entity in their body, I would have no choice but to behave the same way.

Second, determinism has allowed me to lose my ego. Rather than being overly concerned with the entity who is “Scott,” I identify more broadly with the pleasures and pains of other humans. Each of us are all just another conscious entity in our society, and when I am generous to others, I see that like helping out different instantiations of myself. This has helped decrease the envy I used to feel more often.

Determinism has also helped me be less harsh on myself. I’m relatively self-critical because I value being realistic. I understand that I’m very unlikely to make as many excellent creative contributions to the world as I may think I should. The successes I will experience are my fate. They are the result of the trajectory of my cognitive abilities, which maybe would have been better if I actually read a book before college rather than playing mindless video games. I will try to make contributions to the world, through neuroscience, or fraud detection, or manual labor. But beyond myself, I’m happy for anything cool that humanity does.

Good resources

3. Street epistemology

I often enjoy talking about topics that are controversial, nuanced, and/or personal. Banter can definitely be fun, but in my less-disciplined times, these conversations can be fruitless debates where no one learns or benefits. However, these conversations are more fulfilling for everyone involved if one participant takes on the role of an epistemologist, who tries to identify the reasons for the other’s belief, and the rigor of those reasons.

I enjoy being on both sides of these conversations. If I am the epistemologist, I can learn more about the details of my conversation partner’s point of view and get a better sense of its merits and flaws. This is especially helpful if it opposes my own point of view. If I am the person in the conversation justifying my opinion (the “interlocutor”), it is a good exercise for me to think more deeply about my reasoning for an opinion, and refine it to get closer to the truth.

I’d love to have more conversations like this if anyone is interested in investigating one of their deeply held beliefs or exploring one of my own, let me know!

Good resources

4. Stoicism

I’ve only recently encountered the ideas of Stoicism and its key philosophers: Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus. However, in a short time, I’ve found its ideas to be very practical and complement my world view and general desire to accurately perceive reality (a consistent theme across ideas #1-3).

A core idea in stoicism is the “dichotomy of control.” It’s important to identify what is and is not in our control, and to not get too bothered by things we cannot change. It is not external things that cause us distress (e.g. a mean comment by a friend), but rather our judgment of the event. Therefore, my emotions are the consequence of judgments I make, and I can best control my emotions by focusing on my internal experience of life. This has motivated me to review, reflect, and examine my life through journaling, which has been enjoyable.

Stoicism seems like the closest thing I’ve ever gotten to a religion. I enjoy regularly reflecting on Stoic teachings, like those from Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” and thinking about how they apply to my life and the society I live in. There are a ton of thought-provoking ideas in Stoic literature that I am still in the process of absorbing, and others can explain them better, like the resources below.

Good resources

5. Financial independence

I don’t like spending too much energy on personal finance. But I’ve found being conscious of my spending and savings allows me to live much more freely than I had thought possible. I personally do not need very much to be satisfied in life beyond an internet connection and social interaction. I also think I’m somewhat fortunate to never have acquired a taste for nice things, and to have little personal desire to buy a house, live in an upscale apartment, or have kids. This has allowed me to save more than I spend, which gives me the flexibility to switch between working full-time and focusing on personal goals full-time. I really value this flexibility.

I was incredibly lucky that a grad school labmate forwarded me to some resources on how to move my savings into some index funds like VTI and VGT which I now do easily on Cash App. When my projected spending is exceeded by my return on investments, any extra earning is just bonus and will more and more be used to benefit society in general through charities like GiveWell and their transparent Maximum Impact Fund.

Good resources

End

Well, that’s it. I have 0 other ideas. I’ll keep learning more about these topics and look forward to chatting with others about them.