Friday Links

From the Web

Overcoming Bias Rebuttal on Status Honesty – Interesting response from Robin Hanson about my article on the inner conflict of seeking status. Excerpt:

No, no.  Scott, you are thinking you are built with separate desires for status and creative expression (etc.), which you must consciously trade against one another.  But we rarely need to consciously try to achieve status; usually the details of our desire for creative expression (etc.) are already designed to achieve status.

I agree with Hanson, but I don’t feel this invalidates my previous argument. In addition to the cloaked desires for status deeply embedded in our psyche for status (creative expression, charity, etc.) we also have a strong need for recognition and power directly. It’s this direct need for power that I believe many people struggle with.

Other drives which may, evolutionarily, have been for status reasons, are so well hidden that I doubt the conflict rears its head too frequently, or if it did, we would even care.

For example: Mother Theresa may have pursued recognition from an evol psych perspective, but since the desire was camouflaged by a real sense of charity that she felt and others believed, the conflict doesn’t seem important.

Learning on Steroids Update

For those of you just tuning in, in January, I’ll be launching a new program designed to allow students to implement rapid learning tactics in their life.

My analogy for the program is like a virtual gym membership, but for your brain. Through regular, ass-kicking emails you’ll be connected to a group of people all working to take action to improve their study habits.

For the first month of the program, I’ll be following the program with everyone else. I’m another learner too, so I want to take advantage of the community to help improve my skills.

Unfortunately, because this is a new concept I want to test adequately before growing the membership, spaces in the program are strictly limited to 100. And, after a generous mention of the program by Cal Newport, I now have over 700 people on the pre-launch list.

Selling out fast is a real possibility, so if you want a chance to get in on the action, sign up for the pre-launch here.