November 29, 2023

#58 - Ask Us Anything V: How to Read and What to Read

1 hour 40 minutes

Alright people, we made it. Six months, a few breaks, some uncontrollable laughter, some philosophy, many unhinged takes, a little bit of diarrhea and we're here, the last Ask Us Anything. After this we're never answering another God D*** question. Ever.

We discuss

Do you wish you could change your own interests?

Methods of information ingestion

Taking books off their pedestal bit

Intellectual influences

Veganism (why Ben is, why Vaden isn't)

Anti-rational memes

Fricken Andrew Huberman again

Stoicism

Are e-fuels the best of the best or the worst of the worst?

Questions

(Andrew) Any suggested methods of reading Popper (or others) and getting the most out of it? I'm not from a philosophy background, and although I get a lot out of the books, I think there's probably ways of reading them (notes etc?) where I could invest the same time and get more return.

(Andrew) Any other books you'd say added to your personal philosophical development as DD, KP have? Who and why?

(Alex) Are you aware of general types of insidious anti-rational memes which are hard to recognise as such? Any ideas on how we can go about recognising them in our own thinking? (I do realise that perhaps no general method exists, but still, if you have any thoughts on this...)

(Lorcan) What do you think about efuels? Listen to this take by Fully Charged.

References

Lying and Free Will by Sam Harris

Doing Good Better by MacAskill

Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel

Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Peace is Every Step and True Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

Seeing like a State by James Scott

The Truth Behind Cage-Free and Free-Range | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

People

Producers of rational memes:

Everything: Christopher Hitchens, Vladimir Nabokov, Sam Harris, George Orwell, Scott Alexander, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Steven Pinker

Sex and Relationships: Dan Savage

Environment/Progress: Vaclav Smil, Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker, Hans Rosling, Bjorn Lomborg, Michael Shellenburger, Alex Epstein

Race: Glenn Loury, John Mcwhorter, Coleman Hughes, Kmele Foster, Chloe Valdery

Woke: John Mcwhorter, Yasha Mounk, Coleman Hughes, Sam Harris, Douglas Murrey, Jordan Peterson, Steven Hicks, James Lindsay, Ben Shapiro

Feminism: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Christina Hoff Summers, Camille Paglia

(Note: Then follow each thinker's favorite thinker, and never stop. )

Producers of anti-rational memes:

Eric Weinstein

Bret Weinstein

Noam Chomsky (See A Potpourri Of Chomskyan Nonsense: https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/001592/v6.pdf)

Glenn Greenwald

Reza Aslan

Medhi Hassan

Robin Diangelo

Ibraam x Kendi

George Galloway

Judith Butler

Socials

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By Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani

1616 ratings