Human Progress, Vulnerable Dark Triad, Social Connection
Links and recommendations
You can now catch my interview with Abigail Shrier, where we discussed her book Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up.
Arizona meetup:
I’ll be in Phoenix/Scottsdale later this week to deliver some lectures for Peterson Academy and record a podcast. Figured while I’m in town it would be a good idea to have a meetup. November 7. 6pm. Please register here.
From the archives:
The Short End of the Stick. Average lives matter
The Only Reading App I Use:
I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read:
These screenshots come from my Readwise app.
Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading.
Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder.
Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic.
Exclusive Offer for My Readers
Use this link → https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial).
I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it.
Links and recommendations:
Should Boys Wait Longer than Girls Before Starting School? by Roy Baumeister
What You Need to Know About Humans to Advance Human Progress by Adam Omary
Socialism with a New York Face: A thought experiment by Martin Gurri
GUEST REVIEW: Alexander to Actium by Blake Neff
The Vulnerable Dark Triad by W. Keith Campbell
The Writing World Needs a Free-Market Mindset by Liza Libes
Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories
You can follow me on TikTok here
Three interesting findings:
1. In the 1980s, people were unexpectedly vanishing in Japan. This fueled wild rumors, including conspiracy theories that North Korean commandos were secretly abducting civilians from coastal areas. Authorities, academics, and journalists dismissed these claims as xenophobic paranoia and worked to debunk them. In 2002, however, Kim Jong-Il confirmed the abductions and apologized. (source).
2. Social connection strongly predicts longevity. In one major study, people with strong social ties were more than 50 percent more likely to survive in any given year than those who were socially isolated. Put differently, the most socially connected individuals had mortality rates roughly 2.3 to 2.8 times lower than those with the fewest ties. (source: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz).
3. Age differences in the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) often dwarf sex differences. So, for example, while men are somewhat more Machiavellian than women at every age, young women are far more Machiavellian than middle-aged men. (source; h/t Steve Stewart-Williams).
The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available.
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Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)
No transcript, no time to listen, barely have time to read links and comment.
Great link from the archive—too bad there was no repeat of any of the comments. Most popular there noted that avg folk used to have many paths to a good life, but so much globalization has taken it away from the many Americans at that below avg, 40% level, still quite normal.
IQ, height, health, conscientiousness.
Being on-time & fulfilling commitments can be taught, or at least encouraged, in school & society. Likely with far more success than looking for unicorns/increasing IQ (thru more Edu).
We need more vocational & tech HS & schools not-universities.
"Age differences in the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) often dwarf sex differences. So, for example, while men are somewhat more Machiavellian than women at every age, young women are far more Machiavellian than middle-aged men."
Machiavellianism seems to be a trait that might be easily misdiagnosed... especially give our feminized social sciences.
Being cunning, manipulative, callous and demonstrating self-interest (I think this last one is just common human egoism and everyone demonstrates it... egalitarianism is generally explained as serving some self-interest). Other than dishonesty, these things can be attributed to overt conflict tendencies and disagreeableness... traits that are common male and proven to serve human achievement well. It is when those behaviors are covert or backed by vulnerable narcissist traits that they move into the dark side.