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Spencer Greenberg
@SpencrGreenberg
A mathematician/entrepreneur in social science. Here, my aim is to help you gain insights about psychology, critical thinking, philosophy, tech, and society.
Spencer Greenberg 🔍’s Tweets
(We already have ideas for what we can spend it on that would be valuable of course but we would love to hear your ideas!)
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It’s weird how many people assume that if someone has symptoms and many doctors attempt to find the cause, but none of them can, that means it’s not a real problem.
Every medical problem we now know how to diagnose was once a mystery.
We definitely do not understand them all.
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A question for you: what's an invalid argument that you hear a lot of people making these days? Why is it invalid?
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A question for those who understand the body better than I do: are there any naturally occurring processes in the body by which stored calories (e.g., in fat or glycogen) are removed by a mechanism OTHER THAN by converting them to energy or burning them?
Thanks!
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Which of these four theories do you think is the most likely to be the biggest cause of the rise of obesity in the U.S. over the past 50 years?
Or, if you have another theory, please write it below in the comments!
When you make a selection it cannot be changed
More sugar/simple carbs
Bad additives or oils
Food is tastier/addictive
More sitting/less moving
307 votes3 hours left
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Take a moment to notice how exactly you’re feeling RIGHT NOW. Notice both your mind and body. Which of these best describes how you feel at this moment?
When you make a selection it cannot be changed
Good only
Both good and bad at once
Neither good nor bad
Bad only
225 votes39 minutes left
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Some people claim it's possible to reach a form of enlightenment through meditation (where you are free from almost all suffering or have other incredible changes).
What's your view on these claims about the potential effects of meditation?
- True and many can do it9.7%
- True but VERY hard to do47.5%
- Only somewhat beneficial23.3%
- "Enlightenment" is B.S.19.5%
257 votesFinal results
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I’m interested to hear which of these explanations you think best apply, or if there are other explanations not on this list.
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Some possible theories:
1. irrationality
2. selfishness
3. coordination difficulty (collective action/principal-agent problems)
4. we’re mostly social signaling
5. tribalism
6. bad governance systems
7. evil people
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A question for you: why is the world worse than it seems we should have been able to make it by now?
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Thought you might find this interesting
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Who makes edgy/controversial claims more often?
- Women do more often8.8%
- Men do more often70.6%
- Equally often20.6%
2,725 votesFinal results
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Of course, if you and the other person both enjoy arguing whether Star Wars or Star Trek is better (or whatever subjective question you enjoy debating), then ignore my advice and keep doing what you’re doing.
If everyone’s having fun, you’re doing it exactly right :)
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Instead of treating your preferences as better than theirs:
(1) discuss what standard of evaluation to settle on for this conversation
OR
(2) point out aspects they may not be sufficiently taking into account that may change the evaluation according to THEIR OWN preferences
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People often debate how “good” a movie/novel/piece of art/food is.
This is pretty weird since preferences are subjective. And these discussions often devolve into people trying to impose their preferences on someone else.
But there is, I think, a better approach: 🧵
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Should you try to avoid going to bed angry with your partner (i.e., should you try to talk out or resolve disputes before sleeping rather than sleeping on them)
- Yes always/almost always28.5%
- Yes usually38.7%
- 50/5019.5%
- Usually not13.2%
333 votesFinal results
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What time of day is your favorite?
- Morning (9am ish)37.2%
- Afternoon (1pm ish)9.8%
- Early evening (5pm ish)20.7%
- Night (9pm ish)32.3%
266 votesFinal results
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I’d like to propose the “20-80 rule”: for large projects, the “last 20%” often takes more than 80% of the time.
Why?
Because large projects usually involve hidden complexity, countless small details, and extra tasks that are very hard to anticipate early on.
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The last time you backed a project on Kickstarter (where you were supposed to receive some reward/item in exchange for your pledged money) AND they hit their funding goal, what happened after they hit their goal?
- Received reward on time13.3%
- I received it very late20.8%
- I never received it8.1%
- I’ve never backed one57.8%
173 votesFinal results
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Does anyone else struggle to tell the difference between "15" and "50" when they're spoken, or is this just a me thing? I've misheard which number people meant at least 20 times.
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A question for you: what is one really interesting thing you've learned recently that you can briefly explain to others in the comments?
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Say you run a replication of a psych study (on new participants), and the original results replicate when using the statistical method of the paper. But, there’s a better statistical method and when that’s used it fails to replicate.
Is this a successful or failed replication?
- It’s a failed replication60.4%
- It’s a successful rep.39.6%
139 votesFinal results
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Would you be interested in listening to a podcast episode where one person is pro "ask culture" and one is pro "guess culture," and the three of us explore together why they disagree (and what the pros and cons of each of these forms of social interaction are)?
- Yes, very interested19.2%
- Yes, a little interested27.6%
- Not interested11.5%
- What's ask/guess culture?41.7%
156 votesFinal results
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A question for you: for my podcast, I've done two episodes where I bring together people on opposite sides of a major societal division and explore with them the root of their disagreement.
What societal division should I do this for next?
The prior divisions I covered were...
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One of the most useful things you can do is form a learning habit.
If you spend 30-60 minutes learning per day, 6 days a week, and prioritize (so that you learn what’s useful/important based on your values and goals), in 10
years, you’ll know a remarkable amount.
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