In addition to being a(n admittedly occasional) blog, Becoming Eden is also a repository of a number of summaries, essays, and other longer pieces we like to reference periodically. Here is an up-to-date index of our major posts:
Divia has officially launched her own regular podcast, along with cohost Ben Goldhaber, called Mutual Understanding
Podcasts with Will:
William Eden and Robin Hanson Discuss AI Risk – An hour-long conversation between Will and Robin Hanson, covering peoples’ concerns about the far future, our descendants or AIs being very different from us, what parts of ourselves we identify with and want to see persist into the future, and how likely it is that the current global elite consensus is to ban AI and whether they will be able to enforce that into the distant future
Narratives Podcast, Episode 97, with William Eden – Another wide ranging discussion covering some similar and some different ground from the below podcasts, including the challenges of cryonics and life extension, what makes biotech different from tech, what is most important to consider when doing venture capital investing, is it possible to improve one’s thinking, how we parent our children and approach unschooling, does the Federal Reserve have any clue what it’s doing, and more!
Stoa Conversations: William Eden on Rome, Negative Actualization, and How to Think – Conversation covers how to learn from history, some analogies to Ancient Rome and where they fit and don’t, discussion of whether Stoicism is right for everyone, how Stoicism-like thoughts and attitudes show up in my own life, a retrospective on how we and experts performed in predicting major events like COVID and the Ukraine invasion, and how to figure out which experts to trust.
Clearer Thinking, Episode 040: History and Longevity with Will Eden – Lots of assorted topics, starting with the value of history and what patterns we see happening today, what causes aging and what could be done about it, and whether the stock market makes any sense at all…
Palladium Podcast, Episode 8 – Wide ranging discussion with Will on biotech, healthcare, regulation, research, etc.
The Past, Present, and Future of Biotech and Longevity with Laura Deming and Will Eden – Three-way conversation spanning the history of biotech startups, current developments in the space, how it differs from tech startups, and more.
Clearer Thinking, Episode 114: Guess Culture vs Ask Culture – In a return visit to the Clearer Thinking podcast, Will Eden and Sam Rosen debate the nature and virtues of guess culture and ask culture. (Can you guess which side Will takes?) It is honestly less of a debate and more of a discussion! Unlike most of these podcasts listed it stays on just that one topic, so it might be of less general interest, FYI.
Palladium Podcast 29: Digital Salon on Coronavirus Response with William Eden and Matt Parlmer (or watch the video on Youtube) – Discussion of the early realization of the COVID-19 threat, the failure of institutions to recognize and contain the danger, and how this will affect society and politics going forward.
Rebel Wisdom: Changing Course on COVID – A December 2021 discussion with Will about his popular twitter thread on accepting COVID as an endemic disease, moving on from pandemic-era restrictions, and trying to de-politicize the current environment, to better prepare for the next pandemic.
Launching Longevity: Funding the Fountain of Youth (Panel discussion begins 39 minutes into the video)
Podcasts with Divia:
The Filan Cabinet 11 – Divia Eden and Ronny Fernandez on the Orthogonality Thesis – In this episode, Divia and Ronny Fernandez talk about the strong orthogonality thesis – that arbitrarily smart intelligences can be paired with arbitrary goals, without additional complication beyond that of specifying the goal
The Filan Cabinet 5 – Divia Eden on Operant Conditioning – Discussion includes the clicker training paradigm, operant conditioning, how underrated positive reinforcement is, connections between reinforcement and attachment theory, problems with game theory, and more!
Clearer Thinking, Episode 048: Psychological Models and Parenting with Divia Eden – Extensive discussion of different psychological models and their applications, from Internal Family Systems therapy, to attachment parenting, to operant conditioning and clicker training, to decision theory…
Super Power U, Episode 30: Parenting with Possibility – Divia discusses high-trust, high-investment parenting.
AIRBORNE EDEN! (Philosophers on Twitch playing Flight Simulator) – Divia has a wide ranging conversation with Michael Curzi, covering everything from life philosophy to spaced repetition to unschooling and more.
A Slob Comes Clean, Episode 269: The Problem with Miscellaneous – Divia discusses household management, particularly keeping things clean and organizing lots of kid toys.
Book Summaries
How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Can Talk
How to Win Friends and Influence People
A Theory of Moral Sentiments (partial summary)
Divia’s Anki Decks of Many Books
Practical Guides
How to Become a Venture Capitalist (Don’t)
How to Invest in Startups with No Experience (Don’t)
Less Wrong NYC: Case Study of a Successful Rationalist Chapter
Parenting Beliefs: A Bunch of Sources
Understanding Body Language, Touch, and Appearance
Low Hanging Fruit for Health and Wellness (Counterpoint: Hypothetical Apostasy on Nutrition)
The Quickstart Guide to Fasting
The Comcast Gambit, or How to Save $35 Per Month in Five Minutes
Research
Parenting and the Non-Shared Environment
The Heritability of Everything
A Theory of Economic Development
Other Stuff
The Promise and Perils of Rationality
Fun and Games with Cognitive Biases
What has Changed my Political Beliefs
A Year of Updates about Operant and Classical Conditioning
The Exploration/Exploitation Framework
