{"id":164019,"date":"2025-09-29T11:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=164019"},"modified":"2025-09-29T11:15:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:15:35","slug":"smh-rick-morton-just-won-an-80000-book-prize-hed-give-it-all-back-for-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=164019","title":{"rendered":"SMH: Rick Morton just won an $80,000 book prize. He\u2019d give it all back for justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sydney Morning Herald publishes<\/a>: “Rick Morton has won a Prime Minister\u2019s Literary Award for his non-fiction book [Mean Streak: A moral vacuum, a dodgy debt generator and a multi-billion-dollar government shake down<\/a>]. He\u2019d trade it all for justice for the victims.”<\/p>\n

No, he wouldn’t, unless he was playing a status game.<\/p>\n

We did not evolve to give things to non-relatives for no self-interested reason. <\/p>\n

UCLA psychologist David Pinsof writes<\/a>: “There is no Darwinian incentive for an organism to act \u201cfor the good of the species.\u201d Instead, organisms evolve to act for the good of themselves and their genetic relatives\u2014and against their rivals.”<\/p>\n

So when people talk about their unpaid moral work for people not related to them, you know that they are engaged in a showy performative status game. <\/p>\n

The two easiest paths to fame are to give something away and to publish a book. <\/p>\n

Rick Morton is on his way.<\/p>\n

David Pinsof writes<\/a>: <\/p>\n

A lot of people ask me how I write blog posts\u2014where I get my ideas from. They\u2019re often surprised when I give them a precise, step-by-step answer. Here\u2019s my patented \u00ae formula for writing Everything Is Bullshit content:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    I look at a story we tell ourselves. Maybe it\u2019s <\/span>the pursuit of happiness<\/a> or <\/span>the meaning of life<\/a>. Maybe it\u2019s our desire <\/span>to change people\u2019s minds<\/a> or <\/span>make the world a better place<\/a>. Maybe it\u2019s the idea that <\/span>we don\u2019t care what others think<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    I ask myself if the story makes any evolutionary sense.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    If the answer is no, I think about what might be going on beneath the surface\u2014something that <\/span>would <\/em>make evolutionary sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    I call the story we tell ourselves \u201cbullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    I write about what\u2019s likely going on beneath the surface.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    I link to a lot of technical papers in evolutionary psychology that nobody clicks on.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The most important part of this formula is step 3\u2014the part about what does or doesn\u2019t \u201cmake evolutionary sense.\u201d This step is rarely taken by anyone who thinks about humans. It\u2019s as if the human psyche emerged from a bolt of lightning and not from millions of years of natural selection. When people talk about why Bob voted for Trump or Jane can\u2019t find a date or Otto is depressed, they rarely reflect on the fact that Bob, Jane, and Otto are animals, and so are they. Whenever people <\/span>do<\/em> reflect on their evolutionary origins, they usually aren\u2019t very reflective about it. They think about cavemen hitting each other with clubs or David Attenborough doing a voiceover while a bird performs a mating display.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Sydney Morning Herald publishes: “Rick Morton has won a Prime Minister\u2019s Literary Award for his non-fiction book [Mean Streak: A moral vacuum, a dodgy debt generator and a multi-billion-dollar government shake down]. He\u2019d trade it all for justice for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,10943],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-status"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t