24 Comments

I read the blog post and very much enjoyed it. Do I still need to read the book?

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"(and how about Rob Henderson?)"

Nothing against Rob Henderson, he is great and is one of four people I am paying on this platform, but I would rather see someone like Kurt Gray if you are going to attempt to get into psychology.

Also, I am pretty convinced (attached to the idea?) that a possible integration of psychology and sociology runs through the ideas/work of Donald Black. Your former student, Adam Gurri, seems to have stumbled onto something that points in this direction as well. https://endofsafety.substack.com/p/its-pure-sociology

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I’m wondering if a few years from now we won’t realize that Rob Henderson is a one-trick pony whose ideas were mostly admired because of his difficult background but don’t actually have much staying power?

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I prefer books by one author.

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Books with chapters by different authors tend to be a jumbled mess but when well-coordinated they can be excellent - not that I can think of one at the moment.

And of course some people think nonfiction books by one author are typically too long and repetitive.

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Do it, I say. Sit yourself down and write it. Go.

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You should write the book with ...

AI Arnold Kling clone. The aiBot ASK ghost writer to do most of the writing, with you doing more editing.

You already have all the ideas, tho maybe not all the connections. Maybe ask that Alex who did AI work you like, or maybe Scott Gibb, to assist / help edit.

I'd suggest starting with #3, Learning, as a chapter, see if you can get it written in a draft in a few days -- and publish it on your stack for editing. #3 because if you do the whole book, you'll have learned so much newly relevant that a final quarter of the chapter on ai-assisted learning in practice will likely be re-written, unlike mating or communism.

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You are an important observer on the current scene. DO IT!

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Arnold, you need to utilize bullet point #2. Get Jason Manning to agree to a collaboration, and then trick him into doing all the work.

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Dooo iitttt

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Not only would I read this book, I would pay for the hardcover.

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Sounds interesting - perhaps a section on stories we create for our lives, our societies or as an umbrella theme of making sense might be useful

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I don't know anything about Randall Collins work on energy; is there a book or other resource that is a best entry point to this work?

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Great outline for a book! Would definitely listen to the audio version if it was read by the author or John Lithgow

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Energy seeking - some people successfully seek the positive and some seek the negative. I believe too much of either is a mistake. I very much believe what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. We need to face some challenging situations. Nassim Taleb spoke on a somewhat different topic about how Lebanon and its people are stronger through the adversities they face but I think the underlying message is much the same.

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This is all correct. We have different strategies of survival: cooperation and competition; coercion and conflict. There are incentives to attain status and power because it increases access to mates and resources. Much has been written about this, but maybe not in this way. I thought David Barash's "Game Theory" was insightful.

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Status seeking. I wonder how much that is true. No doubt we are all status seeking at some point, excluding those with mental disabilities and mental illnesses, but I would argue most of us aren't status seeking most of the time. If you include status-maintaining, the percentage increases somewhat.

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Suggest you take a corporate job for awhile so you can experience Z ero sum status games up close & personal.

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You see the people who are trying to advance but it is even easier not to see the ones who aren't.

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That's an excellent list of topics. I especially like this one

"If you let everyone choose their occupation, you will get a lot of artists and no janitors."

For those who don't like free markets and capitalism, the quote is an excellent starter to ask by what means would they prefer to decide who gets to be an artist and who has to be a janitor.

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