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Karstica — On the science con

• [audio] Bias is Good — 21 Mar 2026
  Bias isn’t a flaw in human thinking—it’s a precision tool. The brain trades variance for consistency because the world is noisy. Stop trying to eliminate bias. Start identifying the beliefs that drive it.
• [audio] The Amygdala is Not the Fear Centre — 7 Mar 2026
  The amygdala doesn’t determine your fear response. You do. It’s not a fear centre—it’s an intensity detector. Stop trying to calm the amygdala. Start paying attention to how you respond.
• [audio] Atavism Isn't the Answer — 7 Feb 2026
  The return-to-nature movement bundles legitimate health concerns with pseudoscience using a single template: identify a modern problem, construct an ancestral narrative, sell the return as the cure. It rests on two contradictory assumptions—that we know what ancestral life was like, and that humans are simultaneously robust and fragile.
• [article] Values Don't Matter — 1 Feb 2026
  Values often function as virtue ethics—traits we’re expected to cultivate. But virtues are context-dependent: courage for a soldier isn’t courage for a teacher, and people respond primarily to their environment. So the real task is to design the context.
• [audio] Values Don't Matter — 24 Jan 2026
  Values are virtue ethics in disguise—traits we’re expected to cultivate. But virtues are context-dependent (courage for a soldier isn’t courage for a teacher) and the situation overwhelmingly drives behaviour. The real task is designing the context, not listing the virtues.
• [audio] Men Aren't From Mars — 15 Nov 2025
  Men and women engage in identical behaviours—complaining, offering solutions, needing validation, resisting criticism. The difference isn’t biological, it’s interpretive. We cast the same behaviour as reasonable for one gender and unreasonable for the other. Gray’s book is a perfect case study: emotionally troubled men are normalised while women’s ordinary needs are pathologised.
• [audio] Stress is Good — 1 Nov 2025
  Stress isn’t poorly calibrated to modern life. It’s the energising force that allows us to perform. Optimal performance requires optimal stress. The difference between eustress and distress isn’t biological—it’s psychological. Controllability matters more than the stressor itself.
• [marginalium] Dunning-Kruger is about noise — 3 Jul 2025
• [marginalium] Are intelligentsia less happy — 26 Jun 2025
• [marginalium] Nature is Nurture — 18 Jun 2025
• [article] The Neuroscience Con — 6 Jun 2025
  The neuroscience confidence game trades content for cosmetic filler, making vacuous advice look smart.
• [marginalium] Get ADHD Meds with ChatGPT — 30 May 2025
• [marginalium] How To Rig A Clinical Trial — 30 May 2025
• [article] Positive Intelligence pt.III — 30 May 2025
  This might be the most comprehensive example of the neuroscience confidence game I’ve ever written about. That and a heavy dose of self-indulgence. Neuroscientific self-help, not so much.
• [marginalium] Does Testosterone Effect Economic Preferences? — 30 May 2025