Category Archives: David Pinsof

There aren’t many beliefs I’ve held for decades but this is one — you can’t improve the world without embracing truth first. I think I got that from Dennis Prager’s radio show in 1988. There’s a statement in the Talmud … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: “Behavior is determined by incentives.” …Incentive determinism is obvious. It’s just a bunch of tautologies: we are who we are, we want what we want, and we do what we’re caused to do. And yet, barely anybody … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: I believe people are motivated purely by self-interest, family-interest, and group-interest. No other motives exist because no other motives can survive the Darwinian process… A gene for nepotism causes its carriers to lavish resources on genetic relatives, … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: We love to be interesting. It captures people’s attention. It makes us feel smart and important. Psychologists compete to generate the most surprising, gee-whiz findings—which are the ones most likely to be false—so they can appear "interesting" … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: Here’s a list of problems with the idea that humans are primarily interested in useful truth: Most of the stuff that interests us is false and useless. And we know it. We freely admit it. We call … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: ICT resolves a lot of puzzling findings in the literature on life satisfaction and economic development. It explains why historically wealthier countries have higher life satisfaction than poorer countries, even though rapid increases in national wealth do … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: See if you can spot the pattern: We don’t just want to make money; we want to make more money than our neighbors. We don’t just want a job; want to have a more prestigious job than … Continue reading →

David Pinsof writes: That’s why the intelligentsia cares about the meaning of life. They’re looking for a way to rationalize their lives—to dress up their careers and political loyalties in self-important verbiage. They’re looking for a not-too-obviously-false story they can … Continue reading →