On Kahneman

The best compliment one can receive or give is that you forget that you learned something good from someone and you act on it thinking it's almost innate. It's one of my meta-values. 

Last week after Kahneman passed away, I realized how much he had influenced my life. 

I found Kahneman right around the time Max came into my life. 

I started doubting my decisions but in a healthy way without sinking in a quagmire of self-doubt. The core value he instilled indirectly in me is if I want to help animals, I need to look beyond my self-interest. Most of our actions are based on self-interest and if one could surpass that there is immense beauty to life.

Thank you sir for everything you taught me. You and I are pessimists in others' eyes but we are realists who live to bring marginal optimism so that there is marginal improvement in the world. 

Kahneman (and Taleb) probably saved my life many times already by teaching me about risk.  

It is such a shame that 99.9% of the people in this country (and the world) don't even know him.

Humans haven't even scratched the surface of acting on his wisdom; there are immense good possibilities we are yet to implement. But the eternal possibilities are going to come from consilience of his wisdom with other insights we are yet to discover. 

This is a great tribute to him from his friends, students and people who understood the importance of what he gave to us:

Just wait, it’s going to change everything

By Barry Schwartz, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Swarthmore College

It was 1983, and I was working on a book that aimed to be a systematic critique of conceptions of human nature shared by economics, evolutionary biology, and Skinnerian psychology. I was an “expert” on Skinner, but very much an amateur when it came to the other two fields. In my critique of economics, my plan was to show that a slew of assumptions economists made about what people valued, what they cared about, and how they made decisions were wrong.

The work of Kahneman and Amos Tversky was to be a central part of my argument. But I was on shaky ground, preparing to make sweeping claims on the basis of what might have been very superficial understanding of their work and its implications. So I made appointments to see each of them—Tversky at Stanford and Kahneman at Berkeley—to lay out my arguments and give them a chance to educate me and protect me from embarrassing myself.

Both conversations went more or less the same way. At that moment in history, their work was mostly regarded as the discovery of a set of quirks and imperfections in decision-making that pretty much left the edifice of economic rationality intact. But their work, I argued, would revolutionize how economists think about human aspirations and decisions. It would revolutionize how we all think about what it means to be rational. Just wait, I said. It’s going to change everything.

Each of them, in their own way, tried to calm me down. Danny said that he rarely found himself in the position of defending economics, but my grandiose claims on his behalf had put him in that position. Yes, he agreed, their work might prove to be important, but it wasn’t going to turn anything upside down. He was kind and gentle as he tried to save me from public humiliation.

I left the conversations with each of them even more convinced that their discoveries would be world-changing. They failed to talk me out of my view. I wrote my book, The Battle for Human Nature. Essentially nobody bought it—the book or the argument. Nonetheless, I think the following 40 years have shown that I was right.

I interacted with Danny many times over the years since that conversation, which surely loomed much larger in my mind than his. But that initial conversation remains a jewel in my professional life, never to be forgotten.

[---]

Anxious and unsure

By Eric Johnson, Professor of Business, Columbia University

A few months before the publication of Thinking, Fast and Slow in 2011, the Center for Decision Sciences had scheduled Danny to present in our seminar series. We were excited because he had decided to present his first “book talk” with us. Expecting a healthy crowd, we scheduled the talk in Uris 301, the biggest classroom in Columbia Business School.

I arrived in the room a half hour early to find Danny, sitting alone in the large room, obsessing over his laptop. He confided that he had just changed two-thirds of the slides for the talk and was quite anxious and unsure about how to present the material. Of course, after the introduction, Danny presented in his usual charming, erudite style, communicating the distinction between System 1 and System 2 with clarity to an engaged audience. Afterwards, I asked him how he thought it went, and he said, “It was awful, but at least now I know how to make it better.” Needless to say, the book went on to become an international bestseller.

This was not false modesty. Having studied overconfidence throughout his career, Danny seemed immune to its effects. While surely maddening to some coauthors, this resulted in work that was more insightful and, most importantly to Danny and to us, correct. He was not always right, but always responsive to evidence, supportive or contradictory. For example, when some of the evidence cited in the book was questioned as a result of the replication crisis in psychology, Danny revised his opinion, writing in the comments of a critical blog: “I placed too much faith in underpowered studies.”

The best tribute to Danny, I believe, is adopting this idea, that science and particularly the social sciences, is not about seeming right, but instead, being truthful.

Cheese Paradox - Why Do Vegetarians Continue Eating Cheese And Dairy?

This study examines vegetarians’ rationale behind consuming non-meat animal products (NMAPs). The authors point out that NMAPS share many of the same ethical concerns as meat — for example, NMAPs come from violent industries that harm and kill animals after they are no longer profitable.

According to the authors, most studies on vegetarians ask questions about why they choose not to eat meat, not why they choose to eat NMAPs. To begin to fill this gap in the research, they formed three research questions:

• Do vegetarians view eggs and dairy as an ethical issue? 
• Why do vegetarians include NMAPs in their diet? 
• Is cognitive dissonance involved in vegetarians’ NMAP consumption, and if so, how do they overcome it? 

[---]

Like many meat-eaters, the authors found that participants tended to justify their NMAP consumption using three of the “4Ns” — that it’s nice, normal, and necessary, but not natural. The authors identified four themes in the data: “acknowledging harm,” “personal benefits,” “social norms,” and “neutralizing dissonance.”

Regarding the “acknowledging harm” theme, participants cited different reasons for becoming vegetarian, but all of them had ethical concerns about animals in the dairy and egg industries. Despite eating NMAPs, they acknowledged that animals used for eggs and dairy may live in gruesome conditions and are killed after they’re done being used. Some people also noted the links between the meat and the NMAP industry. Therefore, in response to the first research question, respondents were generally aware of the ethical harms of eggs and dairy. 

[---]

The authors believe that the “cheese paradox” is an important finding because it puts a spotlight on a major barrier to turning vegetarians into vegans. If advocates can better understand why cheese is so difficult to give up, it may be easier to address this barrier more effectively. 

This research can be used to inform NMAP-reduction strategies. One idea for advocates is to publicize how cheese is connected to the cows it comes from, to increase empathy toward cows. Because of the limited convenience sample, the authors suggest recreating the study with a larger sample to include more perspectives, along with a quantitative study of the cheese paradox. They believe that we can also learn from vegans who were vegetarian in the past to find out why they eventually gave up NMAPs. Finally, they advocate for plant-based nutrition to receive more attention in education and other institutions to help people overcome both personal and social barriers to change.

- More Here

Good Bye Daniel Dennett

Thank you for everything you taught us. You will be missed sir.

Ongoing Quest for Ethical Treatment of Animals...

For more than fifty years now, I’ve been trying to persuade people of the need for fundamental ethical transformation of the way we think about nonhuman animals. Yet, despite some progress, and a welcome increase in the number of vegans, that transformation – call it animal rights, animal liberation, an end to speciesism, or whatever you wish - remains a distant goal.  I can’t see any indication that we will get there in a single revolutionary upheaval.  It’s going to take a series of incremental victories that improve the lives of animals while simultaneously educating more people about the deeper and more fundamental wrongs that we are doing to animals, on a vast scale.   

That is why we should welcome McDonald's recent achievement in transitioning to 100% cage-free eggs for its operations in the United States. McDonald’s served 2 billion eggs in the U.S. in 2023, so this is not a minor item on their menu.  It means that each year, something like six million hens who would otherwise have spent the year locked into bare wire cages will now have space to walk around, spread their wings, and scratch in the litter on the floor of the shed in which they live.

This didn’t happen overnight, and it’s worth looking at how it came about. 

he story begins with Henry Spira, the pioneering activist for oppressed humans and oppressed animals. (To learn more about Henry, see this video) In 1989, Henry began talking to McDonald’s about setting standards for the welfare of the animals whose flesh, milk or eggs it was selling.  As he put it: “If McDonald’s moves a millimeter, everyone else moves with them.” McDonald’s was willing to talk, but for several years, it just stalled.  It wasn’t until 1997, and the public relations disaster of the “McLibel” trial - when McDonald’s sued two activists for defamation because they had said, among other things, that the corporate giant was responsible for cruelty to animals, and the court held that this was not defamation because the charge was true - that McDonald’s began to entertain the idea of setting standards for its suppliers.  Later that year Bob Langert, McDonald’s director of environmental affairs, came to New York to meet Henry and me, and the company began to entertain the idea of setting standards for its suppliers. Sadly, Henry died without seeing those standards accepted, but some of the organizations working for farmed animals – among them People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Humane Society of the US, Mercy for Animals, and The Humane League - continued his work. In 2015, McDonald’s pledged to phase out eggs from caged hens, but said that it would need ten years to do it, because McDonald’s was using 2 billion eggs a year, and at that time, the supply simply wasn’t there – 93% of U.S. eggs came from caged hens.  Today, that figure is around 60%.  and McDonald’s has fulfilled its pledge nearly two years ahead of schedule.

Don’t get me wrong.  The term "cage-free" doesn’t mean that the hens get to range around open pastures and enjoy the sunshine.  Nearly all “cage-free” hens are locked up in a shed crowded with thousands of other birds and the high stocking density can lead to stress and pecking, which may result in injury. This is still not an ethically tolerable way of confining animals.  Still, cage-free systems allow hens to stretch their limbs, move around, perch, and scratch in the litter. That’s a significant improvement over life trapped in a cage so small that even if there were just one hen per cage, she could not fully stretch her wings – and there will be four or more hens in each of those cages.  Such cages are illegal in the entire European Union, the United Kingdom, and a few U.S. states, including California, but remain the way in which most egg-laying hens live in the U.S.

These incremental advances form part of a larger narrative where consumer demand and ethical considerations influence major corporations to alter their practices. McDonald's shift to cage-free eggs reflects growing consumer concern about animal welfare, which is having an increasing impact on corporate policies and practices. The transition to cage-free egg production was no small feat; it required a massive overhaul of existing supply chains. This overhaul was navigated through the collaborative efforts of numerous stakeholders, including the huge agricultural conglomerate Cargill and various family-owned egg producers. These entities faced substantial challenges, such as reconfiguring barn layouts, investing in new infrastructure, and adapting to new animal husbandry practices. Their commitment to adopting cage-free systems demonstrates that industry will change if consumers and investors forcefully express their concerns about poor animal welfare.

Henry Spira's legacy is a powerful reminder that change is within reach when consumers raise their voices for higher standards. The animal movement needs to build on this achievement, striving for standards that reduce harm and promote the health and well-being of animals, pushing beyond cage-free to create a more ethical and sustainable food system.

- Peter Singer

Jane Goodall's Message To Younger Generation

The younger generation has so much they can learn from elders. Who made an impact on your life?

Goodall: I think it’s really important, this exchange of information from the elders to the youngers. I was really lucky; I had an amazing mother. I was born loving animals, and she supported that love of animals. I was one-and-a-half years old, and she came into my room and she found I’d taken a whole handful of wriggling earthworms into my bed. Most mothers would’ve [said], ‘Oh, throw these dirty things [away].’ She just said, ‘Jane, I think they might die without the Earth, you better take them into the garden.’ And so she nurtured this inherent love I had … in all the insects, the birds, the animals, everybody around me.

What is the most important message to convey to the younger generation?

Goodall: The goal that I have is helping young people understand that there is a window of time [to save the planet]. Unfortunately, today I [still] meet more and more people who are losing hope. So many people feel helpless and hopeless because [they question] what can they can do as an individual.

But what people have to understand is when it’s 2 million, 1 billion, 2 billion, 3 billion, all taking small actions to make the world a better place, that is changing the world. What matters is people understanding that as an individual, what they do makes a difference. Not because it’s just them, but because they are not alone.

[---]

What message do you have for the world?

Goodall: A message to the world would be, don’t forget that you as an individual make an impact on the environment every single day. And it’s up to you to choose what sort of impact you make. I think once everybody understands the role that they play, whoever they are, is so desperately important, then we move towards a better world.

- More Here

What are you serious about? How far will you go?

Brilliant post!

I agree with his observations but not how he applies this knowledge. 

As I got older it became clearer to me that not many people are really serious about anything. Some people go their whole lives without ever having met anyone else who I might describe as actually serious, so they find it hard to believe that anybody could really mean what they say, since everything everyone says is bullshit. I remember feeling like that myself at some of my low points in life, when I was at my most depressed.

Looking back now I don’t think I was entirely wrong, the issue was that I was overly fixated on unpleasant truths. I find myself compelled to describe it as “LinkedIn World”, where everyone is performing a bullshit role in a bullshit play.

[---]

Anyway so– it’s actually quite rational for most people to assume that any other random person probably isn’t serious. That they don’t really mean what they say. Lots of people play-act seriousness for social reasons, but quit when the going gets tough. So it makes sense that lots of people are broadly cynical. Cynicism is a completely reasonable defense against fraud and bullshit. The trouble with cynicism as a defense mechanism is that you can get so good at it that you inadvertently also defend yourself against anything good happening for you.

[---]

I mean something closer to ‘dynamic persistence’, and a sense of humor is often critical to that. It’s hard to persist for a long time if you ‘take yourself too seriously’. You become rigid, stiff, the opposite of dynamic, and eventually you bang up against something that breaks you one way or another, because you weren’t able to back down, or laugh it off.

So the point is to take the work seriously but you don’t take yourself too seriously. 

There’s a riff about this in Stephen Pressfield’s War of Art, where he talks about how amateurs are too precious with their work: 

“The professional has learned, however, that too much love can be a bad thing. Too much love can make him choke. The seeming detachment of the professional, the cold-blooded character to his demeanor, is a compensating device to keep him from loving the game so much that he freezes in action.”

 

Meta Value - 27

All conditioned things are impermanent’ — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. 

- The Buddha, Dhammapada, verse 277

Truth - Impermanence of life, and everything else. 

I think within a few months of Max coming into my life, I understood this. My time with him is limited. I have to immerse myself with him "now" like there is no tomorrow. 

I don't remember how I understood this; if I had read Buddha or I understood this viscerally being with Max. 

Our relationships, life, money, fame, friends, wishes, dreams, and decisions all are impermanent. 

Understanding this helped me become a much kinder living being and on the contrary, it also helped me stand up against bullshits of envy, jealousy, self centeredness et al.  

Everyday, even today and as long as I breathe - I live by understanding that everything is impermanent. Ironically, this  truth is beautiful. 

The Signal

The Signal - I loved the unique storyline and final (good) twist. 

Humanity needs more stories like this to think beyond self and their families. This quote says it all!

Somethings are bigger than us. 

I really don't care how humanity was in the past but we need to learn to sacrifice for things bigger than us. Things that reduce pain and sufferings for all beings and more.

Moments During Termor

I was working and was in a meeting. Neo was lazy and lounging on a bean bag. Fluffy and Garph were taking a nap. Weird enough, I could hear Saroo and Blue were having a quintessential sibling fight few minutes ago in the upstairs bedroom (yeah, Saroo is probably the culprit).

Then I heard a weird noise buzzing all around and the whole house started shaking... my heart started pounding. My mind was engulfed with thoughts that NYC has been attacked and there are fighter planes flying above. But yet, part of me said this is an earthquake. 

Those few moments felt like eternity. 

I had no control in front of mother nature. I wanted to save all five in the house and I had no idea how to do it. My mind was refusing to draw a clear plan in those moments.  

And it stopped. 

My heart and body was still pounding, expecting an aftershock which might be worse. But nothing of that sort happened. 

Those few helpless moments, I remembered my favorite lines; a meta value of mine: 

Mind as a River

Understand: the greatest generals, the most creative strategists, stand out not because they have more knowledge but because they are able, when necessary, to drop their preconceived notions and focus intensely on the present moment. That is how creativity is sparked and opportunities are seized. Knowledge, experience, and theory have limitations: no amount of thinking in advance can prepare you for the chaos of life, for the infinite possibilities of the moment. The great philosopher of war Carl von Clausewitz called this "friction": the difference between our plans and what actually happens. Since friction is inevitable, our minds have to be capable of keeping up with change and adapting to the unexpected. The better we can adapt our thoughts to the current circumstances, the more realistic our responses to them will be....

Think of the mind as a river: the faster it flows, the better it keeps up with the present and responds to change. The faster it flows, also the more it refreshes itself and the greater its energy. Obsessional thoughts, past experiences (whether traumas or successes), and preconceived notions are like boulders or mud in this river, settling and hardening there and damming it up. The river stops moving; stagnation sets in. You must wage constant war on this tendency in the mind. 

- The 33 Strategies of  War by Robert Greene

No amount of preparation would have allowed me to plan and react accordingly in those moments. 

But this meta value and inner peace, is probably what I depend on most to help me think clearly  if the worse would have happened. No one can preplan in this uncertain life but lifelong meditative understanding of fragility, epistemic humility and the importance of a clear mind without preconceived notions is what I depend on to make decisions during good and bad moments. 

I survived. Everyone around me survived. The gift of life continues. 

Eschew clinging to the past, building future "legacy", and zillion other pleasures humans seek causing so much pain and suffering.  

Heaven on earth is nothing but life itself. 

Meta Values - 26

Lack of pain and suffering is a gift for me. I don't go in search of happiness. 

Years, months, weeks, days and moments without pain and suffering is absolute heaven. 

Inner peace is more precious than happiness. 

A life with more moments of inner peace than anything else is heaven on earth.