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What motivates us in life?

2020-08-25 · Book summary (Book Club) · Ali · recording, 13:23 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book, Sponsor segment present

In a Book Club episode on Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson's The Elephant in the Brain, Ali presents the book's case that we are selfish and blind to our own hidden motives, why we hide them (social competition, norms, the brain's press secretary) and how they shape charity, religion and politics.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why Ali really makes YouTube videos; introducing Book Club and The Elephant in the Brain

  • ★ This Book Club episode, in Ali's series discussing key ideas from his favourite books, is on The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson. — 00:00:00 · Book Club
  • ★★ Ali says that he would describe his reason for making YouTube videos as fun, helping people and a creative outlet, but a big part of why he is a YouTuber is that he secretly loves the money, fame and social status. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): Drawing on neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson argue in The Elephant in the Brain that we are all intrinsically selfish and often blind to our own true motives. — 00:00:29

00:00:52 — The Elephant in the Brain thesis: four parts of the theory

  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): In The Elephant in the Brain, the elephant stands for the hidden motives we all know are there but do not want to acknowledge; it is an elephant, not a mouse, because these motives make up a big chunk of our behaviour. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain holds that people constantly judge our motives, so we emphasise our pretty motives and downplay our ugly ones, which is not exactly lying but not fully honest either. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain says this hiding of motives reaches our own thoughts: we are not always aware of it, and deceive ourselves the better to deceive others. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain argues that when enough hidden motives harmonise, we build institutions around them, such as medicine, politics and religion. — 00:01:56

00:02:10 — Why we hide our true motives: competition, the parable of the redwoods, norms against bragging, counterfeit reasons and the press secretary

  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain argues that the environment drove brain evolution only up to a point, and competition with our peers in social life then supercharged it, as redwoods locked in an arms race all grow wastefully tall. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain describes social norms that govern subtle bad behaviour, such as the norm against bragging, even though we have an evolutionary incentive to show off our good traits to win allies, friends and partners. — 00:04:21
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain describes a social norm against selfish motives: wanting to be a doctor for prestige and money is frowned upon, while helping people and enjoying science are acceptable reasons. — 00:04:50
  • ★★ Ali says his official reasons for his video How Much Money I Earn as a Doctor and YouTuber were views and inspiring people to start on passive income, but part of him secretly got a kick out of bragging about his online income. — 00:04:50 · passive income

  • ★★ J. P. Morgan (quoted): J. P. Morgan's saying, which Ali has been thinking about a lot: a man always has two reasons for doing something, a good reason and the real reason. — 00:05:40

    “a man always has two reasons for doing something”

  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain describes counterfeit reasons: a brain module it calls the press secretary explains our actions as altruistically as possible, often without our knowing it twists the facts. — 00:06:09

  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): In a split-brain study cited in The Elephant in the Brain, a patient whose right hemisphere was shown the instruction to leave the room got up and, not knowing why, said he was getting a Coke. — 00:06:38
  • ★★ Ali says split-brain studies cannot be extrapolated to everyday life, but they illustrate how capable our brains are of lying to ourselves. — 00:07:08
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The second half of The Elephant in the Brain finds hidden motives in body language, laughter, conversation, consumption, charity and art, and in institutions such as medicine, education, religion and politics. — 00:07:42

00:07:46 — The hidden motives of everyday life: charity, religion, politics, and what to do with this knowledge

  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain says the hidden motive in giving to charity is signalling wealth and altruism: only a tiny proportion of donations are anonymous, and the very rich give at galas where everyone can see. — 00:08:07
  • ★★★ Ali says a regular monthly donation to the Against Malaria Foundation, one of the most cost-effective charities in the world, can save a handful of lives over a standard career. — 00:08:36
  • ★★ Ali says an automatic monthly donation feels less good than giving 10 or 20 pounds to street collectors for Save the Children or Help for Heroes, though most of that probably goes to administrative overheads. (hedged) — 00:09:05
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain argues that we prefer emoters to calculators as allies, so the most effective forms of charity are not the best for signalling good traits, and donors often choose to help themselves. — 00:09:34
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain argues that people in organised religion gather because it is socially required, not because of a common belief, which they make up to explain why they gather. — 00:10:03
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain argues that voters care less about policies or their representative's record than about the party their tribe votes for: politics is more about social signalling and tribal loyalty. — 00:10:32
  • ★★ Kevin Simler (quoted): The Elephant in the Brain says we are blind to our own motives, so when we feel indignant at someone else's wrong, we should look in the mirror and check whether we behave the same way. — 00:11:30
  • ★★ Ali says reading The Elephant in the Brain expanded his mind, and he now sees different aspects of the world in completely different ways. — 00:12:00

00:12:13 — Sponsor read for Brilliant

  • ★★ Ali recommends The Elephant in the Brain as very good and engaging: though long, he got through it quickly. — 00:12:58

00:13:00 — Ali recommends the book; sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked whether Ali, a Kindle reader, bought a hard copy of The Elephant in the Brain just for the review, the channel says yes. — creator comment · Kindle

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Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: hidden motives · Kevin Simler · Robin Hanson · The Elephant in the Brain

Also: People: J. P. Morgan

Organizations: Against Malaria Foundation · Democratic Party · Help for Heroes · Labour Party · Save the Children

Concepts: effective altruism · passive income · press secretary

Only in the description or credits: Book Club · Kindle

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