analects noun, pl

/ˈan.ə.lɛkts/

a collection of ideas, extracts, or teachings.

Betterment

stuff On achievement and excellence

show:

analects under the categories btrmt. believes in, as set out in the manifesto

analects organised according to the fundamental questions of philosophy

sequences of articles gathered around a more focused idea

  • ai-shaped stuff 13 Jun 2026 [article] We keep waiting for AI to get good enough. That’s backwards. The bottleneck is human: work that isn’t AI-shaped, verification we’re bad at,...
  • there are no levels 1 May 2026 [article] Ideas that stick are shaped to be interesting, not true. Some of these are weaponised; snuck by our faculties of reason. AI uses them in spa...
  • useful men 4 Apr 2026 [article] It’s true that the ‘pathways’ to manhood are closing. I don’t think it’s a crisis of masculinity though. It’s a crisis of no more excuses fo...
  • affordance competition 14 Mar 2026 [article] The brain prepares multiple action plans simultaneously and the environment biases which one fires, via salience, practice, goals, and urgen...
  • values don't matter 21 Feb 2026 [article] Values often function as virtue ethics—traits we’re expected to cultivate. But virtues are context-dependent: courage for a soldier isn’t co...
  • gesticism 26 Jan 2026 [article] Lots of things are happening, but anything can matter, and whatever gives meaning will eventually demand sacrifice. The agony of attention....
  • stupid questions 1 Jan 2026 [article] Nature is just nurture over time, and nurture is far more obviously in charge; nothing changes if free will isn’t real; and the same is true...
  • ai hallucination is just man-guessing 1 Nov 2025 [article] Human reasoning isn’t flawed, it’s a social tool we use in the wrong places. It’s about sharing and evaluating intuitive claims, not generat...
  • mechanical ethics 1 Oct 2025 [article] Vincent’s S-CALM model describes the situational and cognitive factors that undermine ethical behaviour. Mechanistic thinking helps explain...
  • on motivation 15 Sep 2025 [article] We can think of motivations in terms of three things. There is the content: what things motivate us. Then there is the process: how things m...
  • navigating moral terrain 1 Sep 2025 [article] I describe five levels that help understand how good people do bad things—neural, cognitive, situational, social, and cultural. Inject some...
  • practical ethics 4 Jul 2025 [article] To avoid rationalising poor ethical intuitions, we can use three tools to develop our ethical muscles. Sensitising ourselves to the small nu...
  • moral blindspots 27 Jun 2025 [article] Most people think better ethical decision-making is just a matter of stopping to think before acting. But many moral judgements are intuitiv...
  • moral terrain 20 Jun 2025 [article] You could try to make ethical decisions by reasoning through. You want to do good, so you work out what good means. Then you work out what y...
  • beyond system 1 and system 2 13 Jun 2025 [article] System 1 vs System 2 is a useful shorthand, but our minds aren’t two-speed engines—they’re multi-process coalitions of specialised agents wo...
  • the neuroscience con 6 Jun 2025 [article] The neuroscience confidence game trades content for cosmetic filler, making vacuous advice look smart.
  • positive intelligence pt.iii 30 May 2025 [article] This might be the most comprehensive example of the neuroscience confidence game I’ve ever written about. That and a heavy dose of self-indu...
  • positive intelligence pt.ii 23 May 2025 [article] Chamine’s ‘Positivity Quotient’ is based on nothing beyond ‘being happier is better than being sad’, and unless they appeal to you, there’s...
  • positive intelligence pt.i 16 May 2025 [article] It says it’s based on the latest research, but actually it’s based on a 40 year old version of the concept of an ‘inner critic’, and a pack...
  • uncertainty vs risk 9 May 2025 [article] Our brains track two kinds of uncertainty. Expected uncertainty makes us trust our model of the world more and exploit familiar patterns (be...

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