The inclination to stick to our beliefs and position can be traced back to our ancestral times as it made individuals look reliable, consistent and more predictable; leading to a cohesive tribe. With the age of transparency, people may want to know everything one is thinking, but our cascade of thoughts can often lead to perpetual ones triggered by our initial thoughts leading us to an undesired position.
Despite the idea that we can peer into the source code of our own mind, we are tremendously mysterious to ourselves, making it difficult to be transparent. While we are biologically driven creatures, the ends at which our biology aims are ethical in an incredibly fundamental way.
In this conversation, the hosts discuss the importance of ritual and connection with our elders and ancestors in modern society. They reflect on the concept of "right relation" in Buddhism and the idea of being part of a temporal tribe that extends beyond just oneself.
Our ability to understand and anticipate the thoughts of others is incredibly complex, more so than logical thinking. Building a mirror world in our minds, people by avatars, to understand somebody else's mind can be difficult and computationally demanding, even for seemingly simple decisions like choosing a pub.
The importance of female longevity in co-parenting, a comparison to a Japanese puzzle, and the innovation of male adaptation to fatherhood.
In this podcast episode, host Tim Ferriss interviews Steven Dubner, co-author of the book Freakonomics, about self-experimentation, rationality, and his journey in choosing to practice Judaism as an adult after being raised a devout Roman Catholic. Dubner talks about the importance of understanding human biases in decision making.