gdp's Comments

Wehr in the World : Primates in an Incidental Universe

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:24:13 +0000

Great comment -- thanks for stopping by! 1) You ask the following: "What’s really the value in challenging beliefs that are very probably erroneous? Assuming that, miraculously, your challenge is not met by the resistance of the rather stubborn human brain, which categorically does not like to be told what to believe (and especially what not to believe), then what really have you accomplished?" One's erroneous beliefs may not cause direct harm to other humans, but they certainly can cause indirect harm. And this is a philosophical problem, right? What I am getting at, essentially, is that religion has a funny way of leaking into politics. Delusional religious beliefs often impose externalities on others through the political process. Accordingly, someone's erroneous beliefs have the potential to cause bad public policy decisions, which then can affect every member of a society. What does the removal of erroneous beliefs accomplish? The benefit, of course, is that the removal of erroneous beliefs ought to theoretically allow us to discuss political problems more frankly and get at better solutions. 2) You ask: "It comes down, as it usually does, to the question of What Do We Care About? Is it Truth? Is it Progress? Or is it Vagina? As a vaporous transient consciousness in an incidental universe, I'm inclined to believe that perhaps it's some combination of the three. Personally, however, I'm interested in Truth because without Truth, we can't even know if Progress is possible. As entirely fallible human beings, I realize that our sexual drives probably distract us from both Truth and Progress. In the evolutionary picture, discovering Truth is just not that important, getting laid is. Being able to argue well, even for something that is absurd (e.g., religion), can definitely be explained by an evolutionary framework. Have you ever heard of Argumentative Theory? If not, I suggest reading up on it. It's the most compelling explanation I've found as to why there is such a vast amount of stupidity in the world.

Wehr in the World : “Really got this wrong man.”

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 03:22:27 +0000

A lesson in writing: if you're not pissing anyone off you're probably not saying anything important or interesting.

Wehr in the World : Justin Wehr tears apart the Internet

Sat, 3 Dec 2011 17:53:20 +0000

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a thoughtful comment, Justin!

Wehr in the World : College Football is for cool people

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:31:48 +0000

It's like the moneyball theory for betting on college football!

Beyond Growth : Transforming the Psychopath and Narcissist Within

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:38:51 +0000

Your closing remark is about the best and most important of all non-zero sum games, i.e., life (not the board game).

Beyond Growth : Why Buying Things Isn't Self-Help

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:16:03 +0000

Ironically, self-improvement is subtractive. The key to improvement is removing this garbage you describe from your life. Once you remove the "noise" you'll actually have the time to improve yourself. Strangely, I speculate that many people would rather spend their days reading about self-help rather than actually helping themselves with the simple and free things you suggest.

Evolvify : The Paleo Diet and Politics

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:59:24 +0000

Great article Andrew! People (especially those in cahoots with politicians) have such a hard time understanding the complexity of the human body.

Wehr in the World : How to think

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:31:05 +0000

I'm going to venture a guess that the majority of people who read this blog don't spend lots of time watching TV; however, I think we probably share similar ideas on the value of TV watching. �I don't count watching TV (or reading) as doing nothing; I mean truly just kicking back and freeing your mind from the external stimulation of modern society. �It is this form of \"doing nothing\" that is underemphasized. �Bertrand Russell wrote an essay that discusses this topic in great detail called \"In Praise of Idleness.\"

Wehr in the World : How to think

Sun, 9 Jan 2011 19:21:31 +0000

Interesting article... Thanks for sharing! I think "doing nothing" is especially valuable in today's society where there is an emphasis on constantly achieving more. We often ignore the fact that we evolved to spend periods of time doing nothing. I feel much better and more productive when I counter periods of intense focus with periods of "doing nothing". I'll admit that I find it difficult to do at times; it can be hard to pay attention to our natural human rhythms in today's society. Also, at a certain point, I think there is dis-utiliity that comes with trying to achieve more or bettering yourself more. It sounds paradoxical, but in order to achieve more you sometimes have to do less; hence, I think "doing nothing" is important piece of the equation.

Wehr in the World : How to think

Sun, 9 Jan 2011 00:07:06 +0000

I think "doing nothing" could be added to that list as well. It's a highly underrated activity these days...

PhilosophersNotes TV : Spiritual Economics - Episode #96

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:43 +0000

Great talk! I'm looking forward to reading this book.

Beyond Growth : The Lifestyle Design (un)Manifesto

Fri, 21 May 2010 02:47:49 +0000

I'm a first time commenter and I must say that I really like what you have going here. It seems to me that the widespread epidemic of using lifestyle design to promote get rich schemes has grown exponentially. Of course this is purely anecdotal. There is so much garbage online these days, but every now and then I come across a blog like this one that is concerned with using lifestyle design in a positive way. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity... I think this should be one of the pillars of lifestyle design. It's good for your you, your wallet, the environment, and the world. In my opinion there are a lot of parallels between lifestyle design and philosophy. For some reason, the movement has lost its roots in the latter. I'd like to change that. -Greg My recent post Workaholics