I'm giving a lecture in my class today on the need for purpose. I define the need for purpose as the need for an overarching, self-organizing, future-oriented aspiration that energizes one's efforts and provides a central source of meaning and significance in one's life. Purpose is self-organizing in that it often causes a fundamental reordering of the most central motives associated with the self. Things that once preoccupied you suddenly cause you little concern and may even seem trivial.

"I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been in the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories."
—Edgar Allan Poe Dopamine can continue to motivate you subcortically long beyond the point in which you actually enjoy the stimulus any longer.

Interesting new study finds significant differences between self-described liberals and progressives. (thread) psypost.org/2022/08/new-st… “Relative to traditional liberals within the U.S. left-wing, it appears that progressives are more likely to 1) advocate for ‘Mandated Diversity’ within institutional settings, 2) show ‘Cultural Appropriation Concerns’ regarding creative expression..."

There are some cool new studies on narcissism and the dark triad. I thought I'd create a thread with some of them in there. 1. Vulnerable narcissism (VN) and avoidant personality can be distinguished from each other. VN seems to be a pathology of a more deeply disordered, unstable self-esteem, that may negatively respond to help efforts of positive affirmations made by others. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

There is a potential dark side to mindfulness. Mindfulness may be especially harmful when we have wronged other people. By quelling our feelings of guilt, it seems, the common meditation technique discourages us from making amends for our mistakes. bbc.com/worklife/artic… No spiritual practice is always good or always bad. Depends on context and use. See this article for further nuance: scientificamerican.com/article/the-sc…

I had a very interesting insight into the nature of consciousness a few night's ago I wanted to share. Have been on the fence about sharing this personal experience, but think ultimately people will find this intellectually interesting at best and simply amusing at worst. So, I love edibles. But the edibles I do are usually only at about 5-10mg of THC content. I accidentally purchased a snickerdoodle with abnormally high THC content. I didn't realize until a second after I ate *most of it* that the single cookie was at *100mg* of THC content! 😲

Just heard about the passing of Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi... no words. Will have more to say later. Legend. Major influence on so many. Processing. ❤️ It's confirmed: The father of flow, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, has passed away at the age of 87. His studies on flow and creativity were seminal and formed the core of much of my own research and thinking. RIP, legend.

I've been reflecting on the evolution of my thinking about IQ and wanted to write an honest post about it.

As a child: "I didn't do well on an IQ test. IQ tests are invalid."

As a teenager: "I'm going to spend my career in psychology showing that IQ is invalid."

[1/5] In grad school: “Wow, the science of IQ is actually really interesting. IQ is so predictive of so many things in life. I’m seduced by the science. Brains, genes, the mind, oh my cognitive science is so freaking cool.”

[2/5]

Don't become so radicalized that you interpret every call for equality and fairness as "pandering to the woke mob".

Don't become so radicalized that you interpret every critique of critical race theory as an act of racism.

Open your mind. Open your heart. Think for yourself. On the one hand, considerations of equality and fairness matter. Not everyone is on a level playing field. Reducing genuine efforts in that direction as mere “wokeness” is unfair at best and harmful to those facing real hardships at worst.

40% of Americans are experiencing food insecurity for the first time due to COVID. As I discuss in my book Transcend, food insecurity has strong effects on aggression, anxiety, and motivation, severely limiting self-actualization. It's important not to judge food deprived people. "79% of survey respondents struggled to find the support they needed when they were faced with food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic... 37% have skipped meals so their children could eat." prnewswire.com/news-releases/…

In a society where "virtuous victimhood signaling" is socially rewarded, psychopaths will inevitably abuse the system to reap the benefits of such signaling. This is unfortunate because it makes it more difficult to discern real victimhood from manipulative opportunists. [1] Ekin Ok and her colleagues from "The Immorality Lab” at UBC found that 34% and 24% of their sample reported that “at some point in their lives, they have pretended to be hurt or harmed, physically or psychologically, to increase the chances of getting something they wanted”.

While I’ve been critical of how IQ tests are applied in education, @nntaleb is incorrect that IQ tests are “meant to select exam-takers, paper shufflers, obedient ITIs (intellectual yet idiots), ill adapted for ‘real life’”. See thread below.

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1080540232687210496

1. If you look at which tests are most strongly correlated with total IQ scores, you see that IQ is least strongly correlated with clerical skills (e.g., code learning, reading speed) and most strongly correlated with analogical, abstract reasoning ("fluid intelligence").