Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Self-Improvement and Research Ethics (with Rob Wiblin)

Jan 7, 2021

02:32:34

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Episode notes

Introduction

3min

How to Learn a Specific Skill

2min

How to Become a Better Person

2min

The Importance of Choosing the Right Thing to Buy

3min

How to Motivate Yourself to Exercise More

2min

The Value of Doing Self Improvement Experiments

3min

How to Accumulate Evidence Quickly

2min

How to Solve Back Pain With a Standing Desk

3min

The Importance of High Variance Interventions

3min

10.

The Risk of Long-Term Effects of Antidepressants

2min

11.

How a Line Manager Can Help You Improve Your Life

3min

12.

How to Set Goals for the Next Week

2min

13.

The Importance of Narrowing Goals

2min

14.

The Dual Traps of Giving Up and Quitting

2min

15.

How to Hack Your System to Make It So You Stick With Things When You Want to Finish Them

2min

16.

The Disadvantages of a PhD Program

2min

17.

The Importance of Pairing Up PhD Students

2min

18.

Daily Ritual: A Habit Creation System

2min

19.

The Value of Long-Form Content

4min

20.

The Importance of Recording Conversations

2min

21.

The Importance of Reading the Popular Press

3min

22.

The Effect of Episode Longevity on Listening

2min

23.

How Audio Can Improve Your AttentionSpan

2min

24.

The Complexity of Human Values

3min

25.

The Challenges of Thinking Experiments to Determine What You Value

2min

26.

The Importance of Honesty in Life

2min

27.

The Importance of Belief

2min

28.

The Human Brain Is Optimized to Care About Happiness

2min

29.

The Importance of Understanding Your Values

2min

30.

The Moral Landscape

2min

31.

The Nature of Morality or Ethics

2min

32.

The Psychology of Moral Disgust

3min

33.

The Cultural Programming of Ethical Intuitions

3min

34.

The Importance of Thinking Experiments

2min

35.

How to Deal With Stress and Anxiety

3min

36.

The Ethics of Human Challenge Trials for COVID-19

5min

37.

The Misalignment Between Incentives and the Public Interest in COVID

4min

38.

My IRB Nightmare

3min

39.

The Concern About Al-Qaeda's Interpretation of Islamic Scripture

3min

40.

Positive for Recruiting People for Studies Online

4min

41.

The Value of Human Challenge Trials

2min

42.

The Cost of Coercion in Research Ethics

4min

43.

Steel Man Argument in Favor of Current Approach to Research Ethics

4min

44.

The Importance of External Oversight in Social Science

2min

45.

The Cost of Social Science Research

4min

46.

The Future of Medicines

3min

47.

The Cost of Patient Autonomy

3min

48.

The Importance of Side Effects

2min

49.

The Importance of Public Funding of Trials on Supplements and Medicines

3min

50.

The Importance of Equilibrium

2min

51.

How to Avoid a Mad World

5min

52.

The Importance of Prediction Markets

3min

53.

The Odds of Romney Wining the Election

4min

54.

The Trickiness of Evaluating Probabilistic Predictions

3min

55.

The Mystery of Predicted Odds

3min

56.

How to Forecast Cryptocurrency Markets

2min

57.

How to Predict the Probability of Something Important

3min

58.

How to Make Accurate Forecasts

3min

What are the best strategies for improving ourselves? How are line managers useful? Why does Rob prefer long-form content for the 80,000 Hours podcast? What are the sorts of things humans value and why? In what ways do research ethics considerations fail to achieve their stated objectives? Why are prediction markets useful?

Rob Wiblin is the Head of Research at 80,000 Hours where he investigates how people can do more good in the course of their career and produces a long-form interview show called the 80,000 Hours Podcast. He studied genetics and economics in Australia before moving to the UK to help develop the emerging field of effective altruism. You can learn more about Rob at robwiblin.com, learn more about his research work at 80000hours.org, and follow him on social media at @robertwiblin.

Staff