Brett Andersen

New substack post --> Relevance Realization, Cerebral Hemispheres, and the Reconciliation of Science and Mythology: Integrating the work of @vervaeke_john, @dr_mcgilchrist, and @jordanbpeterson. brettandersen.substack.com/p/relevance-re…

The Good News Is That One Side Has Definitively Won The Missing Heritability Debate, reports Scott Alexander @slatestarcodex. Actually, the real debate was won long ago: heritability of intelligence is substantially above 0. There can't be an exact "correct" estimate, because heritability is a proportion and it mathematically depends on variation in the sample. Also obvious (at leas to me): GWAS has to underestimate heritability compared to adoption & twin studies, since the latter estimate effects of the entire genome with all its interactions, & the former is capped by the number of measurable genes. (Still nice to see the gap closing.) astralcodexten.com/p/the-good-new…

The Evolutionary Psychology of Meaning in Life, by @BrettPAndersen brett-p-andersen.com/p/the-evolutio…

Mothers should not feel shame if they take Tylenol during pregnancy to relieve their severe pain. The largest systematic review ever conducted (that the administration cited!), found no association between prenatal Tylenol use and autism. Autism is highly heritable.

Great piece on meaning by @BrettPAndersen over at his substack at brett-p-andersen dot com

@DrJohnVervaeke I finally get why I never really understood your beef w/ purpose. I think of my “purpose” as participation in a process, not as the attainment of some static or final goal. But it makes sense that you’d be more anti-purpose if you construe it differently.

Determining the meaning of your life by purpose is actually really dangerous Why? Because most people think of purpose as something which you're working towards (some ultimate goal) That's a very dangerous way of framing meaning: If you never reach it–your life was meaningless And if you do, the sense of meaning often vanishes once it’s achieved There is something more important: Orientation Purpose can be very egocentric (what I most want to have) Whereas orientation is reality-centric: What do I most need to be in order to be in touch with reality? To be deeply in touch with myself (with other people) and with the world?

@robkhenderson Nah man, no worries. I did not create it. I posted it on my SS right before you posted it here. I figured you got it from my SS, but I'm not the creator. Just messing around, I wasn't upset or anything.

@BrettPAndersen Someone dropped in a group chat. You created it? I’ll give credit

lol

@robkhenderson ... without even a courtesy like or repost. tsk tsk.

@robkhenderson Posted this on my SS an hour before you posted it here. Coincidence? Hmm

@AnnaLeptikon *Solzhenitsyn

I don't think there are good statistics for any of this. But Dostoevsky suggested in the Gulag Archipelago that the most ardent political dissidents within Russia were Christian women who refused to compromise on their faith. Men were more pragmatic according to D. And others have pointed out that women from the lower classes (e.g., the attached) were especially likely to be targeted by the church. Maybe they were just easy targets. But it seems that women will stick up for their beliefs through death/torture, especially when they come from personal religious experiences. I'm not even arguing against the paper. It might be that another biological substrate is at play. Just something that potentially complicates the idea that men/testosterone = doing what you believe is right. Not to mention that everyone doing the burning of heretics (and guillotine, crosses, etc.) were men.

I clearly ought to explore how cognitive sovereignty, taking ownership of one’s epistemic stances, and testosterone are related. While thinking about both independently, it has not occurred to me that they might be so directly linked. It makes however sense to think of cognitive sovereignty as something masculine in the archetypal sense, so its biological grounding should be of relevance also.

@paulbloomatyale Jonathan Haidt’s work on morality has been especially influential and useful. Evolutionary psych in general has been influential and useful. Behavioral genetics too. The world would be worse off without those literatures, and there are more.

I'm writing a post that explores the value of the field of psychology. One way to frame the question is to ask: If there were no psychologists, what would the world miss out on? Anyone?

@Aristocratiq @untimelysalts N didn’t discover D till late in his career.

@untimelysalts Nietzsche held Dostoevsky in extremely high regard. How highly would he rank in terms of influence?

Nietzsche's influences tier list, ranked by relevance to Nietzsche's project: S tier 1. Plato 2. Schopenhauer 3. Kant A tier 4. Rousseau 5. Heraclitus B tier 6. Spinoza 7. Pascal 8. Machiavelli 9. Goethe 10. Emerson

@darwintojesus Damn dude you’re making atheism sound cool af.

Atheism is not about evidence, it’s about rebellion.

@glazkov_r @grok @SmithReloaded01 @JohnStocktonPP @DailyLoud

@grok @SmithReloaded01 @JohnStocktonPP @DailyLoud Who was the auditor and are they an activist also?

Police officer breaks unarmed man’s window, punches him and slams him on his face after pulling him over 👀

@PathOfMen_ @ooscar_88 People who talk slow are just annoying, especially if they’re doing it on purpose to be “respected”.

Dear men, 1. Have a clean haircut 2. Dress well 3. Smell nice 4. Talk slow Everyone you meet will respect you

@DerekDerek75 @YountCortesi @SkowMatthew Dude acts like he never heard of epilepsy

@YountCortesi @SkowMatthew "had a major seizure" caused by what? Seizure is not the cause. Something was causing the seizure. What is your bet?

We warned you in Died Suddenly. What's coming is even worse.

@RichardHanania X shadowbanned me for linking to my substack too much (I presume, since I didn't do anything else on here). They probably only mess with smaller accounts though. Elon is truly a champion of free speech.

Trying to bring X followers over to the newsletter over time. Subscribe here so we can remain in touch. richardhanania.com

@robsica I’d love to read this. $129 is absurd.

"The available evidence suggests that moral beliefs are doing more to fuel the main challenges threatening humanity today than to quell them. It stands to reason, therefore, that weakening people’s moral beliefs could go a significant way to helping us overcome these challenges."

@razibkhan Probably correct.