Robert Wright: belief

Transcript context

…Yeah. Well, first of all, and I'm, I'm not just flattering you 'cause I've already succeeded in, in, in getting on your podcast, so I don't need to flatter you anymore for purposes of book promotion. But you, you have struck me as a fairly exemplary person along. Now, I wasn't aware of you before you encountered AI, so maybe you were, you were like a, like a criminal or something before. But you seem to me, um, you know, broad-minded and, and not... You, you, you, you don't seem to me very egotistical. The, uh... I, I suspect you were more like the person you just described before AI than, than you're letting on. But in any event, I'm glad, I'm glad you're like that. You know, uh, what would I say? I mean, I talk a l- l- little in, in the book about... I mean, I, I'm a, I'm a fan of mindfulness. My last book was on kind of the, the psychology and philosophy behind, um, well, um, m- behind mindfulness meditation and, and the, and the logic of, of certain aspects of Buddhist philosophy and psychology. And I really, I really am a believer, so I e- encourage people to at least explore that. A, I mean, i- in terms of particular figures, I, I don't... Y- I, I would... If I, if somebody came to mind, I might be reluctant to mention them because, you know, people kinda have to find what's right for them. I would just say... Well, it's so hard. Uh, I was gonna say if people... If anybody i- is in the habit of depicting members of any group in a very unflattering light, be skeptical of that person. And people do that and they do it subtly. That's not the same as saying that you, you shouldn't, y- you shouldn't think it's better if one side prevails in a given war or, or whatever. I- it's, you know, those kinds of things can have important consequences, those kinds of outcomes. But it's just so, it's so pervasive. The unflattering depiction of groups is so pervasive, and I try to s- I just try to stay away from it. And, uh, I would encourage you to find people who aren't doing that. I, I guess that's, like, hopelessly abstract guidance. I, um, you know... And then there, there are particular... Well, I... Stay away from people who on social media are saying, "Look at this piece of outrageous behavior by this member of this group," even if they're not saying the this member of this group part, right? Y- because, you know, i- if it's implicit that, oh, you know, can you believe that the Democrats are doing stuff like this, or the Republicans are doing stuff like this, or the, the Zionists or the Palestinians or whatever. People who point to outrageous behavior as if it were representative of the whole group, stay away from them. Uh, it's, it's a temptation we all have, I think, because, you know, if we feel strongly about particular ideological issues. But, um, I, I don't, I don't know. I mean, it's a good question. Are there grea- like, where is our superhero? Is that what you're kind of... , if we feel strongly about particular ideological issues. But, um, I, I don't, I don't know. I mean, it's a good question. Are there grea- like, where is our superhero? Is that what you're kind of... I mean, I have to be honest and say American politics doesn't seem to be full of them right now, in my view. But I don't know. I'm struggling. You help me. Nathan, who are your, who are your moral heroes? Who are you... Do you have a guiding light? Well, I'll first add one of, one new thing to your stay away from list, and that is pay per click advertising. I would say I mostly didn't get too far down to the bottom of the barrel in my, you know, entrepreneurial activities when it involved these kind of pay per click... But I mean, talk about a extremely competitive dynamic where the, the whole rules of the game are set up for everybody to basically to compete for who can get the, you know, the neurons in the subject to, like, light up in just the right way to get the click, you know, and, and ultimately to get the payment. And, you know, you, you really g- that's an environment where it's very hard to compete at all effectively without-…

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