Robin Hanson is an economics professor who kept running across conundrums of human behavior in his research. Why do we spend so much of our GDP on medicine — even when studies show that more medicine does not lead to better health outcomes? Why have we spent years perfecting methods of instruction — yet educational institutions keep resisting the very reforms that would, supposedly, help us learn better? Along with his colleague, Kevin Simler, Hanson went to evolutionary biology to find a theory that helps explain all the contradictions, which he describes in their book The Elephant in the Brain. In this conversation, we dive deep into his findings and dwell in the not-so-flattering corners of human psychology.
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On the agenda:
-Clothing Emperors, Dropping Schmeckles [0:00-12:52]
-Inefficient Evolution, Inspirational Speakers [12:53-20:04]
-Medicine: WTF? Part 1 [20:05-31:44]
-Evolutionary Psychology, Motives, and Norms [31:45-45:46]
-Medicine: WTF? Part 2 [45:47-50:39]
-Marriage, Parenting, and Education [50:40-56:56]
-Institutions and Mobs [56:57-1:04:17]
-Comedic Statutes of Limitations [1:04:18-1:12:54]
Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.
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