What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

by Tim Urban

Technology is a multiplier of both good and bad. More technology means better good times, but it also means badder bad times.

As the times get better, they also get more dangerous. More technology makes our species more powerful, which increases risk. And the scary thing is, if the good and bad keep exponentially growing, it doesn’t matter how great the good times become. If the bad gets to a certain level of bad, it’s all over for us.

Unlike technological growth, wisdom seems to oscillate up and down, leading societies to repeat age-old mistakes.

As great as civilization may be, 500 generations isn’t enough time for evolution to take a shit. So now we’re all here living in this fancy new habitat, using brain software optimized to our old habitat.

In a lot of ways, modern humans are like modern moths, running on a well-intentioned Primitive Mind that’s constantly misinterpreting the weird world we’ve built for ourselves.

When we slip down to the Ladder’s low rungs, we’re short-sighted and small-minded, thinking and acting with our pettiest emotions. We’re low on self-awareness and high on hypocrisy. We’re our worst selves.

So the Higher Mind’s goal is to get to the truth, while the Primitive Mind’s goal is confirmation of its existing beliefs. These two very different types of intellectual motivation exist simultaneously in our heads. This means that our driving intellectual motivation—and, in turn, our thinking process—varies depending on where we are on the Ladder at any given moment.

That’s why perhaps the most important skill of a skilled thinker is knowing when to trust.

Confirmation bias is the invisible hand of the Primitive Mind that tries to push you toward confirming your existing beliefs and pull you away from changing your mind.

People in an Idea Lab don’t usually take arguments personally because Idea Lab culture is built around the core notion that people and ideas are separate things. People are meant to be respected, ideas are meant to be batted around and picked apart.

having a major procrastination/perfectionist problem opens an empathy window to anyone with any form of self-defeating tendency. When I see someone who struggles with their diet, I don’t think, “Why don’t they just eat healthier? It’s not that hard.” I think, “This is their version of procrastination.” Without having experienced their specific struggle, I can appreciate just how awful and difficult it must be.