I have a short list of people who encapsulate my current foundational position. I call where I stand "Humilitant" -- militant humility ... and I list what I call the 4H club as the most important thinkers EVER to my own mental models:
Hume, Hayek, Helmuth (von Moltke), and (Robin) Hanson
You've already succeeded at your goals. You've brought important, neglected insights to me and many others. And you have often been the lone voice on certain topics - so we can honestly say that without Robin Hanson, humanity would be missing important understanding of multiple areas.
But the academic bosses *do* frame it as about intellectual advancement. Go listen to your university president or dean give a talk. So shouldn't people from higher status families accept that framing more?
I suspect what you are seeing is just an effect if familiarity. Every structure or organization has a degree of hypocrisy and if you grow up in that environment you learn not to see the ways the goals you give lip service to conflict with what actually increases status.
That is certainly true, but what made the claim interesting was the connection between performance/reward and accepting the framing of the job from higher-ups. If 'accept the framing' actually means: follow their most specific instructions regardless of the relationship to bigger picture statements it collapses into the anodyne claim thaf: doing what your boss tells you to do is a good way to succeed (financially/conventionally) at your job.
Maybe that's unfair, but at least I no longer feel I really understand what you mean when you say: accept the framing.
So sorry to hear about your mother, Robin. I love that an estimated 20 million people have read one of her her essays, and I love that you took the time to come up with this estimate!
Sorry for your loss. Your mom had a good long run of it and it sounds like she had passions in life, so good for her.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my son, where we debated how to trade off living in comfort vs. leaving a long-term imprint on the world. (You have people like Vincent Van Gogh who led spartan lives but achieved great success after they're gone.) My son's question was, why should you care one way or another what people think of you after you're dead? It doesn't affect you (the living you) in any way. Hard to argue and yet...many of us do care.
As I thought about it more, I decided this is one area where our genes' interests don't entirely align with our own ("our" meaning the pilots of these fleshy machines the genes build to propel themselves into the future). My genes are immortal in a sense, so it is extremely material what the future thinks of me, because it will reflect highly on them.
At my funeral all I want said about my life is that I was a good father and husband; that I taught my children how to think and that just maybe I taught them to be self reliant and responsible for their own lives; I hope my wife considers me her best friend and biggest supporter. That’s enough for me.
> But compared to others, I put a much bigger weight on intellectual progress
And i commend you for it. As someone who has followed your work over the past decade or so. As someone who has no degree in anything (only HS diploma), yet 1 peer review pub in neuroimage (co author) and 1 in quantum physics (ieee qcnc2026, solo), academia is a intellectual ghetto for the most part so I have to commend people like you when I see it.
"And myself having insights isn’t that valuable compared to communicating them in ways so let others see and build on them." I find this a valuable insight that I've never seen explicitly communicated like this.
Robin, what if you set the wrong meta goal and spend your time on earth sub-optimally? Recently I read Shakespeare’s Henry VIII and in the epilogue the play right questions Henry’s meta goal of “produce a man heir at all cost”. Clearly, he could have stopped when Elizabeth I was born. Funerals bring up these questions: are we pursuing our optimal path, do we have the correct compass? How can we see the best path forward? What level of advisors (Henry had many) do we need? Can self reflection alone suffice? Onward! For me you, Robin Hanson has been an abundant source of novel ideas and insights.
I think your biggest contribution to intellectual progress is not in economics but in teaching us how incredibly status-brained we are. There are two kinds of people, the neurotypicals who do it all the time, but unconsciously, and the autistic who just do not understand neurotypical behaviour without this key insight.
I mean, be a high school kid in 1993 and another kid tells you "Metallica is the best band in the world", if you are autistic you immediately start wondering by what objective metric can one rank bands. Number of tickets sold? Radio airtime? But in fact this statement does not mean what it means, it means "find me cool because I like cool things". And this is the key to understanding neurotypical behaviour, for example, contradictory political views like close down prisons except the one Weinstein is in and so on.
Ironically, it was economists who used to mislead us about this. I mean remember when in the 1980's the concept of socio-economic status was big, it was thought people have a fixed hierarchy based on how much money they have. No, status is more like a fluid transactional game. For example, there are circles in which a bicycle is cooler than a Lamborghini.
Also important to remember people sometimes play low-status too, in order to not come across as a threat.
You are doing pretty well Mr Hanson. Polymarket et al have brought your ideas to life and will get hopefully mainstream sooner than later.
Hopefully, while you are still alive, your "Vote on values, but bet on beliefs" stuff gets implemented in some decentralised American city.
YOU MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE, REST ASSURE FUTURE LEADERS WILL QUOTE TWEET YOU A LOT.
My condolences, Robin.
I have a short list of people who encapsulate my current foundational position. I call where I stand "Humilitant" -- militant humility ... and I list what I call the 4H club as the most important thinkers EVER to my own mental models:
Hume, Hayek, Helmuth (von Moltke), and (Robin) Hanson
You've certainly done your part for me.
Best wishes to you and your family.
You've already succeeded at your goals. You've brought important, neglected insights to me and many others. And you have often been the lone voice on certain topics - so we can honestly say that without Robin Hanson, humanity would be missing important understanding of multiple areas.
But the academic bosses *do* frame it as about intellectual advancement. Go listen to your university president or dean give a talk. So shouldn't people from higher status families accept that framing more?
I suspect what you are seeing is just an effect if familiarity. Every structure or organization has a degree of hypocrisy and if you grow up in that environment you learn not to see the ways the goals you give lip service to conflict with what actually increases status.
They give lip service to that at times, but their more specific instructions are about resources and prestige.
That is certainly true, but what made the claim interesting was the connection between performance/reward and accepting the framing of the job from higher-ups. If 'accept the framing' actually means: follow their most specific instructions regardless of the relationship to bigger picture statements it collapses into the anodyne claim thaf: doing what your boss tells you to do is a good way to succeed (financially/conventionally) at your job.
Maybe that's unfair, but at least I no longer feel I really understand what you mean when you say: accept the framing.
I just meant to refer to that claim: "doing what your boss tells you to do is a good way to succeed at your job."
That was touching. Thank you for writing it
So sorry to hear about your mother, Robin. I love that an estimated 20 million people have read one of her her essays, and I love that you took the time to come up with this estimate!
Sorry for your loss. Your mom had a good long run of it and it sounds like she had passions in life, so good for her.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my son, where we debated how to trade off living in comfort vs. leaving a long-term imprint on the world. (You have people like Vincent Van Gogh who led spartan lives but achieved great success after they're gone.) My son's question was, why should you care one way or another what people think of you after you're dead? It doesn't affect you (the living you) in any way. Hard to argue and yet...many of us do care.
As I thought about it more, I decided this is one area where our genes' interests don't entirely align with our own ("our" meaning the pilots of these fleshy machines the genes build to propel themselves into the future). My genes are immortal in a sense, so it is extremely material what the future thinks of me, because it will reflect highly on them.
If you think in terms of cultural evolution you will see less conflict between natural selection and leaving a long term impact outside your DNA.
Appreciated this post. May your mother Rest in Peace and her memory a Blessing.
AI allows for rapid fermi-approx meta-analytics. Which is a tough new standard for Intellectual commodity production.
Your 'prediction market' win has been a grand success, I wonder how much the patent owner captured the surplus (lol).
Best ever. We're all given different gifts.
My deepest sympathies, Robin.
At my funeral all I want said about my life is that I was a good father and husband; that I taught my children how to think and that just maybe I taught them to be self reliant and responsible for their own lives; I hope my wife considers me her best friend and biggest supporter. That’s enough for me.
> But compared to others, I put a much bigger weight on intellectual progress
And i commend you for it. As someone who has followed your work over the past decade or so. As someone who has no degree in anything (only HS diploma), yet 1 peer review pub in neuroimage (co author) and 1 in quantum physics (ieee qcnc2026, solo), academia is a intellectual ghetto for the most part so I have to commend people like you when I see it.
"And myself having insights isn’t that valuable compared to communicating them in ways so let others see and build on them." I find this a valuable insight that I've never seen explicitly communicated like this.
Robin, what if you set the wrong meta goal and spend your time on earth sub-optimally? Recently I read Shakespeare’s Henry VIII and in the epilogue the play right questions Henry’s meta goal of “produce a man heir at all cost”. Clearly, he could have stopped when Elizabeth I was born. Funerals bring up these questions: are we pursuing our optimal path, do we have the correct compass? How can we see the best path forward? What level of advisors (Henry had many) do we need? Can self reflection alone suffice? Onward! For me you, Robin Hanson has been an abundant source of novel ideas and insights.
I think your biggest contribution to intellectual progress is not in economics but in teaching us how incredibly status-brained we are. There are two kinds of people, the neurotypicals who do it all the time, but unconsciously, and the autistic who just do not understand neurotypical behaviour without this key insight.
I mean, be a high school kid in 1993 and another kid tells you "Metallica is the best band in the world", if you are autistic you immediately start wondering by what objective metric can one rank bands. Number of tickets sold? Radio airtime? But in fact this statement does not mean what it means, it means "find me cool because I like cool things". And this is the key to understanding neurotypical behaviour, for example, contradictory political views like close down prisons except the one Weinstein is in and so on.
Ironically, it was economists who used to mislead us about this. I mean remember when in the 1980's the concept of socio-economic status was big, it was thought people have a fixed hierarchy based on how much money they have. No, status is more like a fluid transactional game. For example, there are circles in which a bicycle is cooler than a Lamborghini.
Also important to remember people sometimes play low-status too, in order to not come across as a threat.
Sorry for your loss Robin. I have gained immensely from your work, thank you.