[HN Gopher] Racehorses and Psychopaths
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Racehorses and Psychopaths
        
       Author : jger15
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2021-10-30 15:38 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thekcpgroup.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thekcpgroup.com)
        
       | kayo_20211030 wrote:
       | Maybe there are some good ideas in here, but, for god's sake, get
       | an editor.
        
       | krona wrote:
       | The connection between racehorses and psychopaths in this article
       | seems to be large left ventricles and extreme left-brain
       | lateralization.
       | 
       | I could read this article again but I think I'd just become even
       | more confused if I did.
        
       | mcculley wrote:
       | In the essay: "There's a remarkable study where participants were
       | shown a video of a hand being stabbed, while their empathic
       | response was measured by fMRI."
       | 
       | I am astounded that such claims are made on the web without
       | references. It was what the web was made for. I would have
       | enjoyed following a link to this study.
        
         | mdorazio wrote:
         | Probably this one:
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6079240/
        
       | Nevermark wrote:
       | I believe I understand the essay and really liked it.
       | 
       | But it does seem to be at the intersection of more than one
       | interesting theme. That cross section obviously is important to
       | the author, and I feel like I got it.
       | 
       | But I will need to re-read the essay later to see if I can
       | identify each theme more clearly, and then better understand the
       | convergence of ideas the author sees.
       | 
       | For a start, maybe:
       | 
       | - Humans are making a mess of things
       | 
       | - Priding ourselves on the individual internal overcomplicated
       | unreliable maps of the world we each have built, causes a great
       | deal of this harm.
       | 
       | - [EDIT: ADDED] This is a deeply toxic dual breakdown of both
       | rationality and motivation/values.
       | 
       | - Maintaining focus instead on continually getting only the most
       | important things about the world right, would help us think more
       | clearly and effectively.
       | 
       | - Obtaining an explicit understanding of the subconscious values
       | we each individually operate from, would help each us make better
       | choices in terms of values.
        
       | version_five wrote:
       | I know this is off topic, but I wish this type of essay had an
       | abstract or thesis statement at the beginning that could help me
       | understand if I want to read it.
        
         | throwaway81523 wrote:
         | It is imho a disorganized article that burps up some
         | interesting points from Scott Siskind's review of Julia Galef's
         | book (linked in the article) and a few other places. There's
         | not really a central point made, except maybe that certain
         | cognitive distortions reinforce other distortions.
         | 
         | I read the book review itself a week or so ago and having that
         | in the background probably helped make sense of the article. I
         | do like reading Siskind (aka Scott Alexander), at least in
         | small doses, and it may be more worthwhile to read his stuff
         | directly. His stuff is longwinded but usually stays on its
         | topic. The racehorses article is more like free association.
        
         | fullshark wrote:
         | The first paragraph even explicitly says what the point is and
         | it was all over the place and I had trouble following. I think
         | this is the key point:
         | 
         | > The universal principle that comes out of all of this is of
         | the power of your filter. Perhaps the simplest and best
         | definition of wisdom I've heard is "knowing what information is
         | important." This kind of knowing is not solely done in the
         | intellect. Data is constantly being fed into your unconscious,
         | then cross referenced against your experience.
        
           | Jeff_Brown wrote:
           | Feels like advice the author needs.
           | 
           | I'm not being (intentionally) snarky. A lot of writing isn't
           | has little point beyond sharing the set of things floating
           | around lately in an author's head. "I haven't quite made
           | sense our of these things but they seem important, maybe you
           | can."
           | 
           | You could argue that's perfectly legitimate -- but it's never
           | presented that way. The conceit is always that you'll learn
           | something useful.
        
             | Jeff_Brown wrote:
             | To be fair, i thought the introduction telegraphed quite
             | well that it would be mushy and without any clear purpose.
             | Not sure why I didn't stop there.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-10-30 23:02 UTC)