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PODCAST

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you"ll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math,

science social sciences

All Episodes

01:13:39

Science is learning from start-ups (with Adam...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/05/15

Read the full transcript here. What are focused research organizations? Which kinds of research projects lend themselves to the FRO model? Researchers in academia frequently complain about the incentive structures around funding and publishing; so how do FROs change those dynamics? Why must FROs be time-limited, especially if they're successful? Who's in charge in an FRO? How does "field-building" help to improve science? What effects might large language models have on science?Adam Marblestone is

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01:08:11

The range of human perceptual experiences (with Anil...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/05/03

Read the full transcript here. How does the world differ from our perception of it? Where is color located? Is the self constructed in the same way our concept of the world is constructed? Aside from being interesting bits of trivia, why does any of that really matter? In what ways does perception most often differ among humans? How different are art and science?Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author, and public speaker who has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than

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01:15:08

The capabilities approach to welfare (with Martha...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/04/27

Read the full transcript here. What is the capabilities approach to welfare? To what is this approach reacting? How should capabilities be balanced or traded off against each other? How do capabilities differ from needs? Are zoos unethical? Can plants be subject to injustice? What are our ethical obligations towards factory farms? How do our ethical obligations to domesticated animals and livestock differ from our ethical obligations to wild animals, if at all? Why is vulnerability important? Is

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01:09:06

Should you become a charity entrepreneur? (with Joey...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/04/19

Read the full transcript here. What is charity entrepreneurship? What sorts of incentives pull charities away from their stated goals? Why is Effective Altruism even a thing when it's already the case that most charities probably try to be as effective as they can be and probably use evidence of some kind to move towards that end? How diverse are the value systems in the EA movement? To what extent should charity funders diversify? Under what conditions does expected value theory break down? Is it

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01:11:44

Has political polarization been misunderstood? (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/04/12

Read the full transcript here. Are the US's culture wars a sign of a society falling apart? Is social media a cause or a symptom (or both or neither) of the animosity between political tribes in the US? We've all heard of postmodernism, but what the heck is it? Is libertarianism a right-leaning ideology? Are the current levels of intergenerational animosity unusually high? How will the FTX collapse likely impact cryptocurrencies over the next few decades?Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at

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01:11:41

How can you tell if you're cut out for...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/04/05

Read the full transcript here. What are "variance-amplifying" and "variance-dampening" institutions? Has the world been getting weirder recently? Should entrepreneurs aim for variance amplification or variance dampening? What percentage of people should be entrepreneurs? What traits and skills are necessary for successful entrepreneurship? How has ambition changed over the course of history? How can entrepreneurs know if they're really changing the world, or just doing something slightly before

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01:02:50

Letting ChatGPT make your decisions for you (with Dax...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/03/29

Read the full transcript here. What would happen if you chose to let ChatGPT control your life for a year? If products like ChatGPT help us (e.g.) to write something important, then should we give it credit as a co-author or merely act as though it's a high-powered Grammarly? How would you feel if you received a hand-written card from a romantic partner but later found out that everything they'd written had been authored by ChatGPT? How can we learn to get along with — and perhaps even form

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01:02:53

What good is college now that we can learn everything...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/03/22

Read the full transcript here. Why are colleges and universities valuable to societies? Why does formal post-secondary education seem unnecessary for some fields like programming, where a person can learn everything they need from internet resources? Do universities have a monopoly on credentials? If so, is that monopoly warranted and desirable, or does it stifle innovation and reduce competition? Why have tuition costs been skyrocketing over the past few decades? How does the quantity and quality

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01:12:45

Not seeing your face as a first step to...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/03/15

Read the full transcript here. What is The Headless Way? What are we like before we accept the names, roles, and narratives given to us by other people? What does it mean for consciousness to be "boundless" or "infinite"? What are the benefits of adopting a "headless" perspective? How can we visit (and feel relatively confident that we've visited) this perspective? Where is this perspective situated relative to the larger constellation of meditation and mindfulness concepts from other

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00:59:38

Is giving people a sense of agency better than giving...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/03/08

Read the full transcript here. Can giving people a sense of agency and dignity be better than giving them access to food, shelter, clothing, or cash? And what exactly can be done in practice to expand human agency? How does the value of agency-oriented interventions compare to the value of more tangible interventions? How robust are the findings about all of the above in light of the replication crisis? In general, how much confidence should we place (with or without the replication crisis) in the

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01:06:56

Are you working on the most important problem in your...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/03/01

Read the full transcript here. How are curiosity and innovation connected? What's the most important problem in your field? And are you working on it? Why or why not? Is curiosity the best heuristic — either for an individual or for society at large — for finding valuable problems to work on? What mental models do people tend to use by default? How much is an academic degree worth these days? What are some alternatives to degrees that could count as valid credentials, i.e., as unfakeable (or

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01:32:52

How huge a deal is climate change, really? (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/02/22

Read the full transcript here. How huge a deal is climate change, really? What's the right metric for determining how bad climate change effects will be? How do the forecasts made by climate experts differ from those made by superforecasters? Which pieces of the climate change puzzle are we absolutely sure about right now, and which pieces are still speculative or under investigation? Where can we find trustworthy information about climate change? How can we navigate conversations about these

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01:05:10

Becoming a policy entrepreneur (with Tom Kalil)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/02/15

Read the full transcript here. What is a "policy entrepreneur"? Can people become policy entrepreneurs if they're not already a political office holder? Aside from literally speaking to the POTUS, what are some ways that policy entrepreneurs can make progress on their goals? Why is it so hard for some people to articulate actionable plans that would accomplish their goals? What is market shaping? Why do some government departments have no budget for R&D?Tom Kalil is Chief Innovation Officer at

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01:00:42

How to build your second brain (with Tiago Forte)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/02/08

Read the full transcript here. What is a "commonplace book"? What traits are desirable in "second brain" tools? What are some common mistakes people make in note-taking? What should we take notes about? What are some useful methods of organizing, distilling, remembering, and taking action on notes? How much information should we hold in our brains and how much should be offloaded to a second brain? What are creative convergence and divergence?Tiago Forte is the founder of Forte Labs and one of the

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01:00:18

Does every language have a word for depression? (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/02/01

Read the full transcript here. Why is depression on the rise globally? We've all heard that social media is a big cause of depression, but what other factors might we have overlooked? Why are anxiety and depression so closely linked? What is group interpersonal therapy? How does it differ from cognitive behavioral therapy and other treatment modalities? Which languages lack an equivalent to the word "depression"?Sean Mayberry is a former diplomat and social marketer who believes that treating

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00:55:56

What things in life *shouldn't* we optimize? (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/01/25

Read the full transcript here. Why should we not optimize some things in life? Should some things (e.g., interpersonal relationships) be "off-limits" for optimization? How much time spent being unproductive is good for us? What can we learn by paying attention to our moods? Does science make progress and produce knowledge too slowly? Why is research methodology applied so inconsistently, especially in the social sciences?Christie Aschwanden is author of Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can

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01:26:37

How can we make science more trustworthy? (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/01/19

Read the full transcript here. How can we make science more trustworthy? When scientists break into factions around a particular topic, whom should we trust, and why? Why did trust in science as an institution plummet drastically during COVID? What is the state of the evidence for the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, or vitamin D against COVID? Why is controlling for variables so difficult? What evidence is there for how well IQ represents intelligence and predicts useful things

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01:17:39

Living a life of service to others (with Tasshin...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/01/12

Read the full transcript here. What is a "quasi-monk"? How hard is it to govern one's own speech and thoughts? What is "maximum deep benefit"? And how does it differ from effective altruism? How can we best direct our energy, time, and resources to do good in the world? Should more people become monks and/or adopt a lifestyle of service to others?Tasshin Fogleman is an extremely online wandering quasi-monk on indefinite pilgrimage for the benefit of all beings. He lives a simple life, dedicating

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01:38:52

Mapping metaethics (with Lance Bush)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2023/01/05

Read the full transcript here. What is metaethics? Is moral objectivism the same thing as moral realism? When philosophers examine sentences like "Murder is wrong", are they generally more interested in (1) the role that the language is playing in a social interaction (e.g., that it's an imperative or that it expresses an emotion) or (2) the concepts themselves and their relations? Could it be the case that all moral statements are false? What do we know about how people actually use moral language

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01:09:15

Do organizations have to get slower as they grow?...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2022/12/28

Read the full transcript here. Why do organizations get slower as they grow? What can organizations learn from slime molds? What are the advantages of top-down organization versus bottom-up organization, and vice versa? How can organizations encourage serendipity? What use are doorbells in jungles? Why is it so hard for organizations to set a "north star" that is at once plausible, coherent, and good?Alex Komoroske has over a decade of experience in the tech industry as a product manager focusing

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