Paul Bloom
Psychologist at the University of Toronto and professor emeritus at Yale, author of Against Empathy and The Sweet Spot. He writes the newsletter Small Potatoes.
Paul Bloom did not write this page.
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Their wordsReading broadly provides new ideas for studies, introduces you to new theories, and overall makes you smarter and more interesting.
↗Some non-obvious advice for psych graduate studentssmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBeing proficient in statistics will make you more appealing to employers in tech, consulting, and other fields.
↗Some non-obvious advice for psych graduate studentssmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut I'm here to help you, and I'll tell you that, in the long run, if you're aiming for a research career, spending too much time on teaching is a poor decision.
↗Some non-obvious advice for psych graduate studentssmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 10 days earlier
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Their wordsWhen it comes to the claim that smartphones are to blame, this skepticism should be reinforced by the failure to find robust evidence in its favor.
↗Kids These Days, Part IIsmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe burden of proof should be on the person proposing the ban.
↗Kids These Days, Part IIsmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI think these considerations of flourishing matter more than the psychological studies that everyone, including me, is so obsessed with.
↗Kids These Days, Part IIsmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsunless doomers act in ways consistent with their doomer views, it's fair to assume that they don't really believe what they're saying.
↗Do doomers believe what they say?smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsmy view is that social forces block the adoption of certain beliefs. We are natural conservatives in this regard, reluctant to diverge too far from the consensus, at least not when the stakes are high.
↗Do doomers believe what they say?smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsthe fact that dommers don't believe what they say doesn't mean they are wrong. Some true things are very hard to believe.
↗Do doomers believe what they say?smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 6 days earlier
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Their wordsBut it does suggest that the popularity of despair can’t be taken as good evidence that this despair is warranted.
↗Kids These Dayssmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI think it’s entirely plausible that screens have a real negative effect on teenagers, but studies can’t find them because (a) the effects need not be dose-dependent (maybe two hours on your phone isn’t worse than one hour), and (b) given that everyone else is on social media, giving it up can have a negative effect.
↗Kids These Dayssmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsthe claim here is that arguments about smartphones, bullying, and homework are arguments about values, often moral values
↗Kids These Dayssmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsAre parents better people? Not really. Parental love directs enormous concern toward a few particular people, leaving less for everyone else.
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsI agree with Koopman that people really are swayed by such cases. I also think it’s a dumb-ass gut response that we should try our best to get over.
↗Death by AIsmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThe second failure of rationality is a status quo bias: an unseemly attachment to the way things currently are; an irrational overweighing of the cost of the new. We effectively end up comparing a new technology to perfection, so it’s no wonder it comes up short.
↗Death by AIsmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
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Our reading
Living for as long as possible is worth wanting: if you enjoy life now, more of it is simply better.
Their wordsThis seems like an easy yes. If you enjoy life right now, why not get more of it?
↗Immortality Sounds Pretty Good, Actuallysmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 4 in this piece
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Our reading
A very long life would not grow boring, because pleasures spaced far enough apart do not wear out.
Their wordsThere are things that we naturally take pleasure in—such as friendship, sex, and Italian food—and while we can become sick of anything if continually exposed to it in large doses, we don’t get tired of these things if they are properly distributed in time.
↗Immortality Sounds Pretty Good, Actuallysmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsBut when I think about all the goals I have in my life right now—finish this Substack, get the house ready for some visitors, prepare a course for next year, write a paper, etc.—none of it is driven by an appreciation of my mortality.
↗Immortality Sounds Pretty Good, Actuallysmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsBut there’s no overall narrative arc—it’s just been one thing after another.
↗Immortality Sounds Pretty Good, Actuallysmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 4th of 4 in this piece
- 2 years earlier
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Their wordsMy argument against empathy is limited. It argues that empathy is a poor moral guide. It leads to bad decisions.
↗Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust (Conversations with Tyler, Ep. 218)conversationswithtyler.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 4 months earlier
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Their wordsThe various versions of VR out there, high-tech and low-tech, are terrible empathy machines. After using them, you often end up with less of an understanding of other lives than you started with.
↗Virtual Reality is a terrible empathy machinesmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut in general, we are nowhere near as good at empathy as we think we are.
↗Virtual Reality is a terrible empathy machinesmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsInstead of assuming that we can know what it is like to be them, we can focus more on listening to what they have to say.
↗Virtual Reality is a terrible empathy machinesmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 3rd of 3 in this piece