Ericisms
Eric often uses terms or turns-of-phrase that some people may not immediately understand. This page is a reference source for those only. This should not be confused with more general topic areas that may at first cause confusion such as the DISC, EGOs, Load-Bearing Fictions, etc.
See also: Eric Weinstein Quotes
A/B testing
A/B testing (also known as bucket testing or split-run testing) is a user experience research methodology. A/B tests consist of a randomized experiment with two variants, A and B. It includes application of statistical hypothesis testing or "two-sample hypothesis testing" as used in the field of statistics. A/B testing is a way to compare two versions of a single variable, typically by testing a subject's response to variant A against variant B, and determining which of the two variants is more effective. (Source)
Reference: [1] Discussed in the context of adding âdifferential diagnosisâ to our educatorsâ toolkit so that teaching disabled educators can learn how to add to better instruct students rather than externalizations the blame for their inadequate methods onto into the students.
Adaptive landscape
- Sewall Wright's theory of adaptive landscapes of fitness
Adaptive valley
- Sewall Wright's theory of adaptive landscapes of fitness
Adjective, occupation, name
https://twitter.com/ericrweinstein/status/955117591378329606?lang=en
Anthropic capitalism
Anti-expert
Anti-interesting
Artificial Outelligence
Artificial Outelligence, n: An unintelligent computer system that evolves by hijacking the minds it dupes & outwits.
Example:
The Bass designs false fish used by the mussels to better parasitize the bass.
Itâs one thing to think & talk about the risks of unintelligent agents using *our* brains to outsmart ourselves. Another to see such examples in nature:
References
https://twitter.com/ericrweinstein/status/867050623174295552?s=21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8s0tp9yzY
https://twitter.com/ericrweinstein/status/1116065653847285760?s=21
Consensus
Thereâs no arithmetic consensus because it doesnât require a consensus. But there is a Washington consensus. There is a climate consensus. âConsensusâ is how we bully people into pretending that thereâs nothing to see, move along, everyone. And so I think that in part, you should start to learn that people donât naturally come to high levels of agreement unless something is either absolutely clear, in which case consensus isnât present, or thereâs an implied threat of violence to livelihood or self.
- (https://tim.blog/2016/01/13/eric-weinstein/)
Church and Pike commissions
Were two parallel committees run in the US House and Senate investigating illegal activities by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA). In the 1970's
References and Links:
Church Committee
Brookings institute on the Church Committee
Pike Committee
Deaths of accountability
De-Potemkin
Depotemkin, verb: To create the missing reality that a façade was originally constructed to suggest was present.
Dining a la carte philosophically/politically/ideologically
The concept that you can take parts of different ideologies that you find beneficial without swallowing the whole group of other ideas that typically come along with that ideology.
Erics go-to for this a "Xenophilic Restrictionist".
A xenophile is a person with intense interest/love for other cultures, this is normally paired with an open borders policy.
Restrictionist in this context is an immigration restrictionist, that is derided as a Xenophobic perspective.
Thus a "Xenophilic Restrictionist" would be viewed as an oxymoron/contradiction in terms without decoupling them from their typically associated ideologies.
Other Commentary and Links
Don't screw yourself out of magic
The Educational Complex
A system of selective political, economic, and memetic pressures resulting in a cult of the teaching profession which prioritizes the careerist desires of the educators over the learning needs of the students.
Environment of evolutionary adaptation
Efficient Frontier
Environmental insult
Escher's Hands Drawing Hands
Forced citation
Gating function
Genius vs Excellence
High Agency
When youâre told that something is impossible, is that the end of the conversation, or does that start a second dialogue in your mind, how to get around whoever it is thatâs just told you that you canât do something? So how am I gonna get past this bouncer who told me that I canât come into this nightclub? How am I going to start a business when my credit is terrible and I have no experience? Youâre constantly looking for what is possible in a kind of MacGyverish sort of a way. And thatâs your approach to the world.
Irrationality
Irrationality is a feature not a bug. It gives us the ability to Camp and decamp.
It's a beautiful thing
This originates from New York City.
Meaning: You can extract money from people with no say in the matter.
Related: "It's perfectly legal" â something ethically dubious may be going on.
Injustice Budget
Kayfabe
"A rigorous system would be capable of tying together an altered reality of layered falsehoods in which absolutely nothing can be assumed to be as it appears. Such a system, in continuous development for more than a century, is known to exist and now supports an intricate multi-billion dollar business empire of pure hokum. It is known to wrestling's insiders as "Kayfabe"." (E Weinstein 2011)
The Looting Party
Episode 27, 1:46:00:
- when bill Clinton decided that he couldn't take yet another loss to the Republican party, he was going to start experimenting with republicanism inside of the democratic party. By that point, we had two parties that more or less were two flavors of the same thing. I refer to that collective as the looting party.
Long term vs short term optimization
Long/short positions (nuanced positions)
Maladaptive strategies
Meaning
"The meaning of my life is the progressing struggle to impart meaning to meaning." [2]
Middle Finger
It's the USâs Competitive Advantage. One of the things that the US still has over, letâs say, a competitor like China is that we tolerate the middle finger. itâs really important to start respecting our marginal citizens of greatest ability, and looking for the unusual personality types that are irreverent and committed enough to making things happen and really do things.
Minus epsilon
This originates from the epsilon-delta definition of a limit in mathematics.
New Gimmick economy
No more heroes
Operation Cointel pro
Overton window
Potemkin village
Rent-seeking elites
Resource capture
Riding on a technical substrate
Samizdat
The clandestine copying and distribution of literature banned by the state, especially formerly in the communist countries of eastern Europe.
Selective pressures
Semi-reliable communal sense-making
== Split level argument
Related to the "Motte-and-bailey doctrine".
Steady hands
This originates from Washington D.C.
"He has steady hands." You can count on him to do the wrong thing during an emergency to keep everyone on the inside okay Everyone on the inside is super dependent to burn all of their credibility in public
Steel-manning
The steel man argument (or steelmanning) is the exact opposite of the straw man argument. The idea is to find the best form of the opponent's argument to test opposing opinions.
Teaching disabilities
Not Learning Disabilities Differential diagnosis
Terms of Service
References:
The Observerse
There is no secret ingredient
This is a line from Eric's favorite movie, Kung Fu Panda.
Thinkquisition
TIM - Technology Intelligence Media
Umwelt
(in ethology) The world as it is experienced by a particular organism.