40 Useful Concepts (Summer 2023)
Ideas to help you make sense of the world
I’ve spent much of the past month working on a single deep-dive essay. It details a worrying psychological trend that is ruining lives, and how we might avoid it. This project required more research than anything else I’ve written since 2017, but I believe it was worth it. It will be published soon.
In the meantime, here is the summer 2023 edition of “40 Mind-Expanding Concepts.” As always with these lists, the focus is on concision; if you want a more complete understanding of each concept, click on the concept’s title.
Note that these concepts are presented not as rules for life but as food for thought.
The Concepts
A bat and ball cost $1.10 total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
If you guessed $0.10, wrong!
It’s $0.05.
You missed the “more than the ball”.
When we react instinctively, we react to a simplification of reality.
We scrutinize the opinions of others more closely than our own. Trouche et al. (2016) found that people often reject their own opinions if tricked into believing they’re someone else’s.
To properly evaluate your beliefs, imagine they’re someone else’s.
What is easy for humans is hard for AI, and vice versa. Differential calculus requires far less compute than merely climbing steps. Thus, AI may replace most white collar jobs before it replaces most blue collar ones.
4. Price Anchoring:
Retailers often briefly raise the price of an item so they can then reduce it to RRP and advertize it as a big saving. So when you buy a “discounted” item on Black Friday, etc, you often just bought it at normal price. To avoid this, use online price-trackers.
We assume food products are healthy based on claims like “low fat” and “sugar free”, but foods stripped of fat/salt/sugar often require the addition of even unhealthier substances (emulsifiers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners).
We're better at solving other people's problems than our own, because detachment yields objectivity. But Kross et al. (2014) found viewing oneself in the 3rd person yields the same detachment, so when trying to help yourself, imagine you're helping a friend.
7. Celine’s 3rd Law:
An honest politician is more dangerous than a corrupt one.
A corrupt politician is only interested in enriching himself. An honest, idealistic politician actually wants to change the world, so he stands a real chance of wrecking everything.
Americans without any friends have increased 400% since 1990. A meta-analysis suggests that loneliness increases mortality as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. As society continues to atomize, this issue will only get worse.
9. Rothbard’s Law:
If a talent comes naturally to someone, they assume it’s nothing special, and instead try to improve at what seems difficult to them. Therefore, people often specialize in things they're bad at.
(I think this one explains my life trajectory.)
“That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.”
Beware of serial rationalizers moving goalposts in order to DARVO. You’ll persuade them of nothing, and they’ll persuade themselves of anything.
11. Dartmouth Scar:
Kleck (1980) told his research subjects they’d engage in a study to test discrimination. He painted scars on some of their faces, and then had them attend job interviews. The participants with scars painted on their faces reported feeling discriminated against for their looks. However, unknown to them, their scars had been removed before they entered the interviews.
It would seem we can be victimized by the mere belief that we’re a victim.
We don’t know what we don’t know.
As such, stupid people are too stupid to realize how stupid they are.
This is why it’s easier to win an argument against a genius than an idiot.
13. Revenge Bedtime Procrastination:
You don’t want the night to end and the dreaded morning to begin, so you procrastinate going to bed, as if by doing so you can prevent tomorrow ever coming. But tomorrow *will* come, and if you don’t sleep well, it’ll hit you all the harder.
14. Bias Blindspot:
Whenever I post about a bias or fallacy, I’ll receive replies from leftists claiming it explains rightist views and rightists claiming it explains leftist views. Not once will people claim it explains their own side’s views.
The belief that bias is just something that affects our opponents is our greatest source of bias.
Why do young men commonly endanger their lives with reckless behavior? Fessler et al (2014) found that people view risk-prone men as larger and stronger. Thus, seemingly crazy male behavior may actually be a fitness signal.
16. Compounding:
To win big, do small things consistently.
Since human brains think linearly, we vastly underestimate the exponential effects of cumulative small actions. In 2005, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald traded his way from a paperclip to a house in just 14 transactions.
17. The Never-Ending Now:
We're always chasing the latest info, but this tends to be junk whose main selling point is novelty, not quality. Instead of new info, seek that which has stood the test of time: classic literature, proven theorems, replicated studies.
18. Cromwell's Rule:
Science is never settled, and certainty is the death of thought. Therefore, unless judging a self-evident statement (e.g. 2+2=4), always leave room for doubt in every assumption. Instead of thinking in certainties, think in probabilities: not “that is the case” but “that is likely the case”.
19. Problem Selling:
Problem-solvers take an issue and break it down into small solvable chunks. Problem-sellers (e.g. politicians, the press) do the opposite, blaming many small issues on one big problem that looks insurmountable and terrifying.
20. Celine’s 2nd Law:
Honest communication occurs only between equals.
If one person has power over another, then the less powerful person can’t risk saying what they really think. Thus, in any hierarchy, honest communication only travels horizontally.
21. Snapchat Dysmorphia (aka Selfie Dysmorphia):
The Instagram arms race of lip fillers & beauty filters creates unrealistic beauty standards for girls, causing them to hate how they look. Their desire to escape themselves may help explain the surge in plastic surgery (and, perhaps, gender dysphoria.)
22. Counterfeit Fitness:
Men’s main driver for pursuing greatness is to get laid. But porn & sexbots offer men the illusion of getting laid without the need to “earn” it, so men are quickly losing their main motivation for bettering themselves.
23. Fanbaiting:
Ideas that divide spread further than ideas everyone agrees with. Film studios portray a white character or historical figure as black, which stokes outrage and divides the internet, and as everyone complains or defends it they all unwittingly publicize the movie.
24. Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity:
Evil can be guarded against. Stupidity cannot. And the world's few evil people have little power without the help of the world's many stupid people. Therefore, stupidity is a far greater threat than evil.
Why did we evolve a sense of humor?
Comedy requires subverting expectations and connecting the seemingly unconnected. It's a reliable signal of creativity, so we evolved to look for it in mates, and to use it to attract mates.
May also help explain our appreciation for art.
26. Switch Cost Effect:
We simultaneously inhabit 2 worlds—online & off—and both regularly interrupt us with demands/notifications, so we’re never able to settle in either. The constant switching of attention apparently lowers working IQ by ~10, dumbifying us twice as much as being high on cannabis.
27. St. George in Retirement Syndrome:
Many who fight injustice come to define themselves by their fight against injustice, so that, as they defeat the injustice, they must invent new injustices to fight against simply to retain a sense of purpose in life.
28. Crab Mentality (aka Tall Poppy Syndrome):
On social media, people will attack those they envy or desire to bring them down and assuage their own feelings of inferiority. If they have no pride in their accomplishments, they’ll instead take pride in your failures.
29. Gurwinder’s Theory of Bespoke Bullshit:
Many don’t have an opinion until they’re asked for it, at which point they cobble together a viewpoint from whim & half-remembered hearsay, before deciding that this 2-minute-old makeshift opinion will be their new hill to die on.
The young own little so have little to lose, and are free to experiment and overturn norms. The old own much so can’t risk experimenting, and need stability to safeguard the lives they’ve built.
I believe this is a key reason people become more conservative with age.
31. Celine's 1st Law:
National security is the chief cause of national insecurity.
Government attempts to stop a threat to security lead it to draft harsher laws and to spy on its citizens, which eventually becomes a greater threat than that which it’s protecting against.
32. Idea Laundering:
How do "kind" falsehoods like "sex is a spectrum" and "obesity is healthy" go mainstream? Activists with PhDs use academic journals & scientific jargon to disguise ideology as knowledge, which is then cited as fact by the media & Wikipedia.
33. Shopping Cart Theory:
Returning a shopping cart is considerate, quick, and easy, so it’s an extremely low bar of unselfishness to clear. Therefore, someone who doesn't return shopping carts without good reason (e.g. disability) likely has the principles of an alley cat, and is only being kept in check by laws.
34. Galloway’s Razor:
Research suggests people enjoy possessions less than they expected, and they enjoy experiences more than they expected. In the end, people value what they did much more than what they owned. So choose adventures over luxury items.
35. Reframing:
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. If you feel life sucks, don’t say “life sucks” but “I think life sucks right now.” This shifts the problem from the world to your mind, and it's easier to change your mind than the world.
36. Hebb's Rule:
Neurons that fire together wire together.
When you repeatedly think or act a certain way, your brain begins to physically rewire itself to facilitate that thought or action. You literally become what you repeatedly do. So choose your habits wisely.
37. Hedonic Treadmill:
Once we've obtained what we desire, our happiness quickly returns to its baseline level, and we begin to desire something else. Whatever we get, we get used to. Therefore, contentment lies not in accumulating possessions, but in relinquishing desires.
38. Crabtree's Bludgeon:
It’s possible to create a coherent explanation for any set of observations—even ones that are mutually contradictory. In other words, there is at least one seemingly rational argument to justify even the most idiotic bullshit. So be careful.
39. The Arc of Happiness:
Self-reported happiness graphed by age is smile-shaped. The optimism of youth becomes cynicism as responsibilities mount & dreams collide with reality. But after midlife, happiness rises again as people accept reality and learn to enjoy the little things.
40. Epistemic Luck:
You know that if you’d lived in a different place or time, read different books, had different friends, you’d have different beliefs. And yet, you’re convinced that your current beliefs are correct. So, are you wrong, or the luckiest person ever?
Thanks for reading. If you’re hungry for more concepts, check out the Spring 2023 List and the Winter 2022 List.
Best,
G.
Fantastic. I've read lists like these before but these are all new to me. Hard work and excellent writing, noticed and appreciated.
Thank you for your research, for your work. Great source of inspiration and reflection.