Mutual Understanding

In this podcast, we recap a conversation we didn’t record where Shea and I talked about epistemology and decision theory, and I decided to flag it more when I say “but what would that even mean”

I also made a case for subjective probability as a useful concept, and we talked a little about politics at the end.

At one point I referenced this LW post that mentions confidence and credence.

AI generated chapter time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Motivation for Discussion

00:39 Exploring Timeless Decision Theory

02:00 Objections to Traditional Decision Theories

04:33 Functional Decision Theory and Its Implications

06:01 The Role of Other People's Decisions

08:17 Perspectives on Newcomb's Problem

10:01 Voting and Decision-Making Dynamics

12:40 The Value of Civic Participation

14:03 Philosophical Perspectives on Decision Theory

18:10 Platonism and Mathematical Realism

23:29 The Nature of Abstractions and Probabilities

25:43 Critical Rationalism and Probability Discussions

33:19 Understanding Subjective Probability

36:57 The Role of Betting in Probability Communication

39:20 Precision in Probability Estimates

41:10 The Nature of Likelihood and Causality

44:56 The Complexity of Probability in Epistemology

51:32 Subjective vs. Objective Probability

58:48 Understanding Credence and Confidence

01:13:06 Navigating Political Uncertainty

01:19:41 Protests and Free Speech in Context

01:24:17 Navigating Immigration and American Values

01:31:06 The Left's Political Landscape and Future Directions

01:36:12 Housing and Healthcare: Bipartisan Solutions?

01:40:28 Education Reform and the Role of Competition

01:52:03 The Need for New Leadership in Politics

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I had a great time talking to my friend Cristie Henry about unschooling, an educational philosophy that we both practice within our families.

And here’s a link to the thing I wrote about unschooling that I mentioned when we were talking.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I caught up with my friend Jordan, and we talked about a whole bunch of stuff! Not a very organized conversation, and I hope you enjoy it.

You can find him at The Relateful Company, and his new company Uptrust should be online soon at uptrusthq.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

A pretty rambling podcast about what’s been going through my head recently when trying to work on getting our dogs and cats comfortable with each other.

tldr; I think I was accidentally messing up my training plans by using spatial pressure without realizing it, and I think I better get how Argos’s frustration is working

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I started a threadapalooza on natural law, Kave responded with some thoughts on natural law conflicting with itself, and now I have recorded some thoughts on what I think natural law means and why I think it doesn't. All of this is quite inspired by what David Friedman wrote on property rights.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

In this episode I try to talk though one of my top go-to frameworks for thinking through what to do when my kids are doing stuff that doesn’t work for me, or them, or the family.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

It was great having Shea back on to finish up our conversation from the other week! We talked somewhat more about the Less Wrong rationality stuff, and also hit some other topics like Shea’s issues with libertarians, why he’s against altruism, how consciousness works, and what he thinks about LLMs.

He mentioned two books, The Ominous Parallels and The Open Society and Its Enemies.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

This podcast came out of a twitter conversation Ruth and I had, and we ended up comparing notes about a lot of our parenting tactics and approaches, including how to not be too stressed while having kids.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I was going to record with a guest today, but we ended up rescheduling, so instead I talked about some things I think about attachment theory and object permanence.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

When Emmett and Shea were disagreeing about the red pill blue pill twitter poll thing, I suggested that maybe they could have a voice conversation about it, and then we did!

I wouldn’t say we really resolved things, but as far as I can tell we had fun talking to each other for a few hours about stuff like:

* epistemology

* Objectivism

* how perception works

* the free energy principle

* how much framing effects matter

* things that would make us change our votes

* creating new property rights

* etc

Hope you enjoy if you listen!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com