Communities of belief vs. communities of chemistry (with Tyler Alterman)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Read the full transcript here.

Do people need more community in their lives? What makes for a good community? Can you really belong to a community if you don't share its core values? Is social chemistry transitive? Do "communities of belief" form and build trust more quickly than "communities of chemistry"? Do rationalists avoid taking "vibes", intuition, or instinct into account when forming communities? Can you learn how to do a thing simply by pretending that you're a pro? What can you learn about people by breaking the standard social scripts? How might utilitarianism be harmful or even dangerous to those trying to live by it? Does the effective altruism movement attract people who are prone to hyper-extend, over-commit, or over-optimize themselves to a fault? To what extent does effective altruism encourage its practitioners to live in permanent crisis mode? Where does moral obligation come from?

Tyler Alterman is a former coalition-builder (effective altruism, reducetarianism, x-risks), a former cognitive science researcher (Yale, UChicago), a former startup-maker (Reserve, The Think Tank), a "former" artist & graphic designer, and a current novel-writer & FractalU co-founder. Learn more about him on his website.

Further reading:

• "Effective altruism in the garden of ends", by Tyler Alterman

Staff

• Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
• Josh Castle — Producer
• Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
• Uri Bram — Factotum
• WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

Music

• Broke for Free
• Josh Woodward
• Lee Rosevere
• Quiet Music for Tiny Robots
• wowamusic
• zapsplat.com

Affiliates

• Clearer Thinking
• GuidedTrack
• Mind Ease
• Positly
• UpLift

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