How To Want Better Things

On the productivity hazards of knowing yourself too well

We discuss whether having children is good, bad, or just inevitable if the World Cup goes well. A budding astrophysicist explains protostars to four-year-olds.

2 seasons in and the crew remains undefeated in wasting our listeners' time. This week: mandatory statistics requirements, the case for & against extended lives (feat. modern day Genghis Khan), and why parenting courses might be a bad idea.

A reasonably coherent conversation about the multiplier effect, and the gap between what you do and what you convince others to do. The same logic applies to vegetarianism, advocacy, and seat belt diplomacy in the Balkans.

We read the worst LinkedIn posts we could find. A fish. And a chicken.

This week we start with a genuinely embarrassing British skydiving fundraisers and end up somewhere around the expected value of your vote, Dutch tax policy, and a bunk bed assassination attempt.

An 80,000 Hours thought experiment and a physics major who has made peace with all possible futures. The important thing is that America's GDP triples. Plus: who would you vote for in 2028?

The gang goes through a bit of a divorce. A conversation progress about civilizational progress, moral obligation, and the optimal use of bone mass.

A tour through humanity's grievances, on a 1-5 star scale. Guest celebrity; an actual local guide.

The gang invents inators for filming fireworks, receiving a "we need to talk", and the word "cheeky" used by non-brits. A bonus episode in the truest sense.

On venting anger, willpower depletion, and the 10,000 steps rule. Also I take cold showers. Eight people, none of them surprised enough.

Good news: money can buy happiness. Bad news: not for you. The gang score it big with 20 bucks.

Personality tests work because you remember the parts that fit and forget the parts that don't; federal crimes.

On defeating a knight with a week of prep, creating one big time zone, and fixing sleep as a biological bug.

Good intentions barely predict long-term decisions, and a brief scientific dispute about fish.

Short-term regrets are mostly about things you did. Conversely, long-term regrets are almost always about things you didn't. Either way the gang stands by every decision they have ever made.

On credible life advice, cookie dough, and whether "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" accounts for maimings

An epidemiologist who ran out of smallpox vaccines mid-outbreak and putting Nuclear Power Plants on the border with Belgium.

A special bonus episode where the questions were crowd-sourced & the crowd was sourced too, and we meet the Blimp guy for the first time. Kardashev scale gets mentioned and then immediately dismissed.

We ask which problems our guests would dedicate a career to. Also covered: grand unified field theory, Toyota's shady manufacturing practices, and whether the Forbes 30 Under 30 is still realistic at this point.

The gang turns to career decisions.  Also: physics highroading, a broken car, and Tyler says something toxic.

In the debut episode, we walk three college students through the research on affective forecasting and discover how to focus in real time