Mutual Understanding

We talked about the scarfgate and it turned into a whole thing about how discussions of ethics should work. We didn’t even really get to the part about “high agency”! We did get to analyzing how I pirated music when I was in college. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

We only had a time for a short episode today, but I hadn’t recorded anything in a while, so here it is! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I saw this Twitter thread from Sarah and offered her to talk to her about it on a podcast, and Aaron volunteered to moderate. I was more taking the position that all emotions are functional, and Sarah was approaching things from a more bio-realist perspective. Ultimately, I don’t think we disagreed about all that much once we hashed it out! Some things we referenced: * How Emotions are Made * It’s...

In this podcast, we recap a conversation we didn’t record where Shea and I talked about epistemology and decision theory, and I decided to flag it more when I say “but what would that even mean” I also made a case for subjective probability as a useful concept, and we talked a little about politics at the end. At one point I referenced this LW post that mentions confidence and credence. AI generat...

I had a great time talking to my friend Cristie Henry about unschooling, an educational philosophy that we both practice within our families. And here’s a link to the thing I wrote about unschooling that I mentioned when we were talking. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I caught up with my friend Jordan, and we talked about a whole bunch of stuff! Not a very organized conversation, and I hope you enjoy it. You can find him at The Relateful Company , and his new company Uptrust should be online soon at uptrusthq.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack...

A pretty rambling podcast about what’s been going through my head recently when trying to work on getting our dogs and cats comfortable with each other. tldr; I think I was accidentally messing up my training plans by using spatial pressure without realizing it, and I think I better get how Argos’s frustration is working This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscr...

I started a threadapalooza on natural law , Kave responded with some thoughts on natural law conflicting with itself, and now I have recorded some thoughts on what I think natural law means and why I think it doesn't. All of this is quite inspired by what David Friedman wrote on property rights . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

In this episode I try to talk though one of my top go-to frameworks for thinking through what to do when my kids are doing stuff that doesn’t work for me, or them, or the family. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

It was great having Shea back on to finish up our conversation from the other week! We talked somewhat more about the Less Wrong rationality stuff, and also hit some other topics like Shea’s issues with libertarians, why he’s against altruism, how consciousness works, and what he thinks about LLMs. He mentioned two books, The Ominous Parallels and The Open Society and Its Enemies . This is a publi...

This podcast came out of a twitter conversation Ruth and I had, and we ended up comparing notes about a lot of our parenting tactics and approaches, including how to not be too stressed while having kids. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I was going to record with a guest today, but we ended up rescheduling, so instead I talked about some things I think about attachment theory and object permanence. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

When Emmett and Shea were disagreeing about the red pill blue pill twitter poll thing , I suggested that maybe they could have a voice conversation about it, and then we did! I wouldn’t say we really resolved things, but as far as I can tell we had fun talking to each other for a few hours about stuff like: * epistemology * Objectivism * how perception works * the free energy principle * how much...

Here’s the original poll : Poll question from my 12yo: Everyone responding to this poll chooses between a blue pill or red pill . * if > 50% of ppl choose blue pill , everyone lives * if not, red pills live and blue pills die Which do you choose? The original plan was to talk to Emmett Shear about it, but he ended up being late, so first we talked to each other. This is not the promised second hal...

Jonah and I talked a bunch about developmental models, especially Susan Loevinger ’s, using AI to do research about those models, what interests Jonah in studying them, and how it may make sense to think of LLMs in terms of developmental stages. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I recorded a short episode with just me with a bit of a rant about how I think about the “does intrinsic motivation drive out extrinsic motivation” parenting discourse. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

My guest today canceled (for a great reason), so I talked about some stuff that’s been on my mind lately, including: * how I have been feeling about the election * a couple of more predictions * a little about what I’ve been reading * how I’m relating to having young kids these days This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,...

We originally live streamed some election night results and takes to Twitter, but I wanted to post it here too. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

It was great to have Ben back on the podcast to talk election predictions! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mutualunderstanding.substack.com

I had a great time learning more about the Stratfordian perspective on Shakespeare by talking to Draculaic , my twitter mutual. Divia (00:01) Hey, I'm here today with my Twitter mutual, Draculeac, who is mostly remaining anonymous. And we are here to talk about something that I touched on in the podcast with ThinkWork, but to go into it in greater depth, which is why Draculeac thinks that Shakespe...

In this podcast, Shea and I tried to hunt down a philosophical disagreement we seem to have by diving into his critique of rationality. We went off on what may or may not have been a big tangent about Internal Family Systems therapy, which I’m a big fan of, and which I think Shea thinks should have more caveats? Unfortunately, our conversation got cut short because partway through, Shea got a call...

I would say this one was hard to summarize, since we jumped around and covered a lot of ground, but I had a ton of fun finally talking to Visa from Twitter in realtime. Transcript: Divia (00:02) Hey, I'm here today with Visa from Twitter. That's mostly, I know you're on other platforms too. You have essays, you're on YouTube, but that's definitely how I think of you. When I got back on Twitter in...

Matthew Pierce, @MattPiercello on Twitter, comes on the podcast to talk about his model of how to have productive conversations. Transcript: Divia (00:02) Hey, I'm here today with Matthew Pierce, who is my Twitter mutual. He is a professional cellist, systems thinker, interested in what makes people tick and how we can solve problems together. He's MJ Piercello on Twitter. That's where Pierce and...

In this episode, I talk to my Twitter mutual Thinkwert about Twitter, the nature of whimsy, why he thinks Shakespeare is Shakespeare, and some general life stuff. Transcript: Divia (00:02) I'm here today with ThinkWert from Twitter. If you follow me on Twitter, you almost certainly also follow ThinkWert. checked and I think you were followed by 384 of the people that follow me, is a very high numb...

I got some feedback that the version of this episode I originally put up was too quiet, so I’m posting it again! Apologies for the duplication—I’m still figuring out this podcasting thing. You can find JC Cassis at jccassis.com , and can check out her own podcast, Risk . We cover a bunch of topics, including friendship in adulthood, what we owe each other, and a little about parenting. Divia (00:0...