Researching intelligence, conscientiousness, moral foundations & human attainment. Lots of individual differences & genetics
Edinburgh
Joined September 2011
- Tweets11.3K
- Following1.7K
- Followers8.2K
- Likes115K
Pinned Tweet
I think this is the first report of the heritability of Utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism is surprisingly heritable!
Second, it reflects two underlying biological systems:
1) A flat moral circle, treating self, family and strangers as substitutable.
2) Treating people as means, versus as ends in their own right.
Definitely add the normal distribution, and its mean and standard deviation to your “scientific spectacles”!
James Flynn called these the "Shorthand abstractions" (SHAs) that let people classify the world, apply logic to abstractions, and handle the hypothetical more readily
They are knowledge that you reliably have, and characterise high g minds, which learn optimal abstractions, vocabulary, and skills for meeting their goals. Others include:
* Market / supply and demand
* Natural selection
* Percentage
* Placebo
* Control group
* Random sample
* Falsification
We should be teaching children, from an early age, how to understand statistical distributions, probabilities, correlations, and Bayesian reasoning. These are essential tools for understanding the most important questions facing society.
abhisaha.substack.com/p/my-o…
The replication crisis, instantia-TED
One of the things that hasn’t been talked about with Elizabeth Holmes:
She was created in the era of the Ted Talk Entrepreneur.
Between 2011-2015 (after the release of the Social Network), there was an entire apparatus built around “Child Prodigies”: college accelerators, young entrepreneur organizations, etc.
I watched countless founders of hard tech companies present fraudulent products at conferences. They had fake studies with fudged numbers. Most of the adults in the room excused it as “faking it ‘til you make it.” But Holmes was the one who rode the wave better than anyone else.
When the Ted Talk Era came to an end and people finally came to their senses, she was still running the same playbook—and in the most scrutinized field there is: medical technology.
When people ask how she got so far, it’s largely explained by the period she did it in. And she got caught when the world suddenly woke up.
Great to see an incisive report on making science work better. Even greater to see the goodwill with which the author notes that, unlike most reports which go nowhere, almost 100% of his recommendations are in place right now thanks to Michael Kratsios, White House “Science: A New Golden Age”.
Vannevar Bush smiles down on our embrace of the Endless Frontier.
Excellent report on the NSF from Matt Faherty: newscience.org/nsf/. I wish there were more deep investigations and assessments like this of government agencies in the US, the EU, and elsewhere.
"I will leave you with the comments of a subject matter expert who knows more than me about the details. This is besides the point of my long thread however."
@RolfZwaan brings the receipts to our parlous state.
substack.com/inbox/post/2201…
Tempted to say "What did you think BlueSky meant?"
"Demonstrative knowledge must proceed from premises that are true, primary, immediate, better known than and prior to and explanatory of the conclusion."
Aristotle (~350 BC) Posterior Analytics
Timothy Bates retweeted
Any physicians looking to change a high schooler's life?
My daughter is a junior in high school. She wants to shadow a physician for 20-25 hours (pediatrician, ortho, general practice, etc.). We have looked into programs for high schoolers in the Bay Area and they are all basically fake and give you the runaround. If anybody can help put me in touch with a doctor who would be willing to have a shadow, please LMK or DM me.
Timothy Bates retweeted
Exciting talk from @PaternaBio. If they can mature sperm in the lab, men with severe infertility could have biological kids.
The same tech could let us genetically screen sperm before conception, making embryo screening far more powerful.
Very important paper on how Zero-sum culture sustains itself in part via effort-suppression memes - there's no point reading it. It's probably wrong. Just give up.
From the super smart @JoHenrich lab!
henrich.fas.harvard.edu/publ…
In a staggering irony, the lead author's surname is "Bergeron" – if only his parents had named him Harrison, this would be 🌸 perfect :-)
If you have yet to read the book or see the movie(s), this Vonnegut short story is a masterpiece to treasure:
ia801400.us.archive.org/30/i…
Timothy Bates retweeted
A senior McKinsey partner was stripped of his leadership role after questioning the “glass cliff”--a concept supported by scant empirical evidence.
I investigated the LinkedIn spat that led to his downfall and discovered two authors who turned the controversy into a publicity campaign for their new book.
My investigation for @Quillette. Unpaywalled:
quillette.com/2026/10/15/ana…
Biology has hit its tipping point: Today, Bone loss.
Aging bone marrow fat cells secrete a protein causing immune-system-driven inflammation resulting in NAD⁺ depletion in marrow cells, preventing stem cells maturation which prevents skeletal aging.
Block the cascade and the stem cells happily mature and form new bone like they want to.
Longer healthier active lives incoming! Amazing!
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley…
Timothy Bates retweeted
The Albanese government's Digital Duty of Care laws would give regulators sweeping powers over online content, threatening free speech in Australia & setting a dangerous precedent for internet regulation worldwide.
@TheIPA 's Andrew Bushnell for @Quillette featuring @shellenberger down under
quillette.com/2026/10/15/aus…
This is maximally important: For most people, the answer to “why didn’t you do it” is “it mightn’t have worked”
NIH/NSF should give people an “over thinking” test and divert 100% of resources to the low scorers :-)
Timothy Bates retweeted
Standard embryo tests check for common variants (polygenic scores) and known mutations (carrier screening, PGT-M). It misses a class of rare variants that raise the risk of autism, schizophrenia and other brain-related disorders. Until now, no embryo test looked for them.
Timothy Bates retweeted
From Greg Clark's book that he posted online since he couldn't get an academic publisher to touch it. Obviously, the book contains nothing worth thinking about.
“There’s one in a million chance you can succeed"
A: ‘So you’re telling me there’s a chance?’
B: ‘So 999,000 reasons to fail?’
(Jensen on entrepreneurism in the UK. Item 2 is "Don't overthink it")
57%A
43%B
14 votes • Final results Timothy Bates retweeted
Permission to Think for Yourself: Inside the Thiel Fellowship's Early Years:
review.firstround.com/inside…
