20 Questions

2024-09-03


Why do humans experience akrasia to a greater extent than animals do?

Are transcendental arguments just special (deductive) cases of anthropic arguments?

Why are sleep paralysis hallucinations usually malevolent?

Does (a non-multimodal version of) GPT-4 being able to draw shitty unicorns challenge Kant's view of space as a necessary a priori representation?

Why are used book stores more densely stocked than new bookstores?


Why do relationships break up while friendships slowly drift apart?

Do any authors or artists have a higher arc of reputation than Tasso and Ariosto (at least in the Anglosphere)? If not, what does this say about their common form, subject matter, language, and time period?

Is Hugo Grotius underrated as an influence on western philosophy?

Why is so much internet writing advice of some form (compared to IRL conversations)?

Why do solo artists seem more likely than bands to keep releasing great music for a really long time? Does the discrepancy disappear if you control for bands shorter musical lifespans?


How would Marx(ians) explain Baumol's cost disease?

Why is karaoke most popular in East Asia?

Why do people want to be ascetics?

Why do consequentialist moral movements seem comparatively rare throughout history?

Do moral realists or moral anti-realists take morality more seriously?


Exactly what class of goods (and services?) have relatively low list prices, despite low supply and very high demand? Obviously there's some connection with conspicuous consumption (think of hypebeasts), but what exactly is the connection?

Why do so-called bullshit jobs tend to be comparatively high paying, middle-of-corporate-hierarchy positions?

Why do themes of henosis and theosis seem especially common in anime and manga? Is there some connection to Mahayana Buddhism or Neo-Confucian thought?

Is it better to live at the beginning or end of a civilization?

Does the fact that peoples appetite for risk reduces as they age affect asset pricing?


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