Thanks for coming

I appreciate you being here.

We’re all just trying to Do Our Best and be better tomorrow than today.

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Who Am I?

I’m Josh, an American scientist who is currently living and working in Sweden. I wrote for two years on metalevelup.com, so there’s more content over there, but everybody is on Substack now so I am too.

I travel a lot (when there’s not a pandemic on), and sometimes write about that. I rarely write about my subject-matter scientific expertise (particle physics), though I do write about science-y stuff, and when I feel like it I do non-expert lit reviews. I also dabble in poetry (more here).

I think Rationalism is useful and that more people should read and internalize the content of The Sequences. I think Effective Altruism is the worst version of altruism available to the world, except for all of the others; there are serious flaws but their net impact is unambiguously great. I’ve taken the Giving What We Can Pledge starting in 2017, to give at least 10% of my annual income to effective charities.

I’m recovering from a Ph.D-induced alcohol dependency, and track my progress (with data!) publicly every year; see most recent post here.

Overall, I just try to stoke my curiosity when and where I find it, and use what I learn to try to make my life and the world better.