Non-zero-sum James

Karma: 8

Documentary filmmaker who has spent over 20 years researching, interviewing and building stories around the world—everything from the war in Afghanistan, to life in inner-city Los Angeles, to an Aussie bloke with 34 dogs. I’m a life long student, with passion for creating a better world.

I’m a strong believer in effective altruism and have taken the giving pledge. My weekly blog at nonzerosum.games is a world-help site of sorts—focussing on win-win games as essential to facing global issues. I explore game-theoretical approaches to real world issues in an accessible way, using illustrations, simulations and badly drawn graphs.

Non-zero-sum James 11 May 2024 15:27 UTC
2 points
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in reply to: nathan98000’s comment on: Crabs in a Bucket ~ Or Links in a Chain
Hi Nathan,
I’m really sorry, I didn’t actually mean to include that sentence! After making the claim, based on the quote alone, I read the article and indeed the author provides plenty of supporting evidence for his claims. I had thought I’d deleted the sentence before sending.
I’ve edited that sentence out now. Sorry for wasting your time having to make the case against it.
I only meant to make the claim that Bregman doesn’t make the claim as plainly as the reviewer makes out, and that Bregman does a good job of providing his own evidence—detailing how much inherited wisdom today comes from flawed research.

Non-zero-sum James 6 May 2024 9:41 UTC
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in reply to: nathan98000’s comment on: Crabs in a Bucket ~ Or Links in a Chain
Thanks for your comment.

Bregman doesn’t make this assertion in Humankind, but rather makes a well-supported case that systems of control and incentives play to our worst instincts. Bregman provides vast supporting evidence for his claims, and over-turned many of my fundamental assumptions about the nature of humanity—which I had simply gleaned from popular psychology and “common sense”, through the weight of the evidence he provides.

I recommend both his recent books highly. While he may be pushing a particular narrative, it is one that is a counterweight to the prevailing distorted narrative of humanity passed down by the likes of Golding, Milgram and Zimbardo.

Non-zero-sum James 11 Feb 2024 23:07 UTC
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in reply to: Luke Freeman’s comment on: A Kindness Equation ~ should I give to charity or volunteer?
Thanks Luke!

Non-zero-sum James 6 Feb 2024 22:42 UTC
1 point
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on: Against Longtermism: I welcome our robot overlords, and you should too!
Hey Matt, I thought this was really interesting. I think the mistake people make is seeing saving lives as a very isolated (subjective) good, which is at odds with collective goods (zero-sum thinking), when actually saving lives has a load of other cumulative benefits also. For instance lowering infant mortality lowers the birth rate, mitigating overpopulation, not having family members die is better for people’s mental health and productivity, and not being starving also means people can reach their potential, contributing more to the world as a whole.
Those people who don’t die, and aren’t starving might very well be those that solve the asteroid crisis. I’ve always been a Karl Popper fan for this very reason, that quantifiable goods in the here and now don’t necessarily contradict distant unquantifiable goods, in fact, as you lock in piecemeal rights and well-being factors for people, that layer of security can be built upon, making future benefits more likely.