EA forum comment https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/x9Rn5SfapcbbZaZy9/ea-for-dumb-people?commentId=vGSeFCDSbKzCApxm4 Then I also do think that "higher" intellectual ability and related work are not necessarily higher utility. There isn't one best or optimal thing everyone should be doing. The more one reads about complexity and systems science it is quite clear that there is no one optimal thing to do. It also shows that localism (serving one's direct community) e.g. is better than often portrayed in EA. Creatively and pragmatically solving problems you perceive directly around you is fantastic and your interest in EA suggests that might be better suited to doing so than others around you. ## John Vervaeke interview [[=John Vervaeke#Anna Riedel interview]]. ## Spencer Greenberg interview Great rationality debate. Axiomatic Vs ecological. Many apparent biases are actually optimal speed-accuracy tradeoff. Even sunk cost fallacy might often be useful: it's hard to stay commited to things given the uncertainty we face. [[=John Vervaeke]] Cannot really be a theory of fitness because fitness changes depending on environment. So there can only be a theory of evolution, namely natural selection. Instead of asking what properties rationality has, he asks what is the process by which one becomes more rational. And that's kind of his notion of wisdom. Wisdom is the process by which we become more rational. Overcoming foolishness. Spencer: wisdom is about understanding structure of world well enough that you can make choices or advise people on choices that help people get to better outcomes. Spencer: people's minds are very different. But then people copy each other a lot. Tradeoff between believing what is true and beliveing what the people around you think. How ruthlessly do you want your brain to narrow down the space of actions before you get options to consciously consider. Relevance realisation. Verveke. Must filter out nearly everything. Perception is highly dependent on what we need to see to reach our goals. Think of cog sci as applied epistemology. Paradigms: - behaviourism: mind as black box input output - cognitivism: significant info processing in the Box - computationalidm - connectionism - body dynamicism - 4 E approach: enactive, extended, embedded and embodied. Anna has a map of cognitive science on her website.