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Rob MacCoun

@robmaccoun.bsky.social
75 followers 38 following 43 posts

I'm a psychologist and a Stanford law professor. You might be interested in my recent book Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense (with physicist Saul Perlmutter and philosopher John Campbell).

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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
New Spanish edition of Third Millennium Thinking! There are Italian, German, Chinese, and several other editions out now, and editions in Portugese, Russian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Ukranian and a few other languages soon. Still no interest from the French; pardon moi for badmouthing post-modernism.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
ChatGPT 4o feels my pain. (And yes, I somehow felt compelled to share my inner musings with it, and I always thank AI programs.)
brief dialog where AI empathizes with me for engaging in a sunk-cost fallacy
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
After trying to give them the benefit of the doubt for a few months, I'm finally cancelling my @washingtonpost.com subscription. So sad.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Whoa. This is huge.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBjQ...
youtube.com
What's at Stake
YouTube video by vlogbrothers
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/09/o...
bostonglobe.com
Politics is broken. We can start to repair it only at the community level. - The Boston Globe
We need new ways of solving thorny problems on a human scale.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
The older I get, the less cleverness resembles either knowledge or wisdom, which seem much harder to come by.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
ChatGPT now seems to mention things it learned about me in previous queries (e.g., that I'm using Quarto for a new book project). This immediately makes it both more useful for me, but also slightly...um, terrifying. 🫣
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
{Bra-zil, ian} -- {ver-sion, of our} -- {book is, published}! (Punctuation placed to facilitate reading to a clave beat)
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Seems like a good time to find out what cottagecore is all about, with ~4 yrs worth of videos on YouTube.
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Reposted by Rob MacCoun
David Mair @davidmair4.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Excellent idea in "Third Millennium Thinking" @robmaccoun.bsky.social to encourage government to copy science and oblige policymakers to express confidence intervals around their factual statements, captured here h/t @ppfideas.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GW_...
youtube.com
Zero Dark Thirty | Meeting Scene | 100% he's there | Jessica Chastain | Jason Clarke
YouTube video by MovieLegend
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
The Onion's Supreme Court brief is a must read.
supremecourt.gov
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Bob and Julia are always fun to talk with, and Julia and I got to compare notes (before the show) about King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard.
player.fm
#101-The Virtues of Evidence-Based Policy Making-with guest Robert MacCoun
<p>Even though they affect all of our lives, most of us know almost nothing about how policies are made, especially policy made by our state and federal governments. So, Julia and Bob learned a lot fr...
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
The good news: If trained to be evil, this AI may have just faked being evil, temporarily, to make the best of a bad situation. The bad news: Of course it *would* say that, if it really had become evil. Gulp.
assets.anthropic.com
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
This is a serious problem; the system runs on perceived legitimacy.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
I'm delighted that Third Millennium Thinking is included in Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2024. behavioralscientist.org/behavioral-s...
behavioralscientist.org
Behavioral Scientist’s Notable Books of 2024 - by Antonia Violante and Evan Nesterak - Behavioral Scientist
Our list of noteworthy behavioral science books published in 2024.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
New paper in The Critical Review of Social Science Studies cites me for an imaginary paper: "MacCoun, R. J. (2006). Moral decision making and the psychology of conflict. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69(4), 334-350." No such paper. Curious to see if it gets cited in the future now that it "exists."
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
In the old neighborhood, I would have been alarmed that I follow more people than follow me. A new neighborhood calls for new norms: Following interesting others is something to celebrate. 👋
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
I regularly invite my students to ponder the puzzle of how humans often violate Bayes theorem and yet tiny bumblebee brains are capable of optimal Bayesian foraging. This paper might offer the solution: psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-... @bayesandbounds.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org
APA PsycNet
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
On Thanksgiving afternoon, I happened to relisten to Joni Mitchell's "Down to You". For some reason, it has been playing in my head non-stop ever since. Perhaps I should be concerned, but it has remained glorious the whole time.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Hey, we're in German too, with a bilingual title.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
This place is an American treasure. www.gofundme.com/f/help-secur...
gofundme.com
Donate to Help Secure El Cerrito's Cultural Landmark, organized by Les Blank Films Inc
Help Save the longtime home of Les Blank Films , Arhoolie Foundation , … Les Blank Films Inc needs your support for Help Secure El Cerrito's Cultural Landmark
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
I'm very excited that our book will come out soon in China!
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Just last night, I was telling an audience how important it is to protect the integrity and continuity of federal data collection efforts (economic, public health, criminal justice, etc.), so I was heartened by this morning's lovely NYT essay: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/b...
nytimes.com
Everybody Loves FRED: How America Fell for a Data Tool
From Facebook political debates to college classrooms, the St. Louis Fed’s data tool has gained a major following.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
I'm looking forward to our book event at the Exploratorium After Dark this Thursday. It's a wonderful place and if you go, you get the whole museum to yourself before and after our event (i.e., no school field trips to compete with). www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calend...
exploratorium.edu
After Dark: Figure It Out | Exploratorium Museum Event
Find out how to make better decisions with the help of philosophy, psychology, and physics.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Wow. My curated Bluesky feed is so different from my old feed-that-shall-not-be-mentioned. A big dose of beautiful art, nature, and science, and then some policy stuff that is about ideas, evidence, and problem solving. I don't even feel the need to make this post wry or clever.
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
fivebooks.com/category/new... Nice to see our Third Millennium Thinking getting a nod here.
fivebooks.com
New Books - Five Books Expert Recommendations
With so many new books coming out, what’s the best way to choose what to read? Our list highlights books for understanding or enjoying the world better
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
On Saturday, we had a fun reunion of the team that in 2009-2015 published projections of effects of cannabis legalization in CA and several other states. With Jonathan Caulkins, Gregory Midgette, Beau Kilmer, Rosalie Pacula, Rosanna Smart, and Peter Reuter. (Working on new paper; watch this space!)
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Rob MacCoun @robmaccoun.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
"You're my blue sky, you're my sunny day Lord, you know it makes me high When you turn your love my way Turn your love my way, yeah".
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