The Intrinsic Perspective

The Intrinsic Perspective focuses on bringing together different fields of knowledge, such as science and the humanities. It explores a wide range of topics through thoughtful essays, touching on areas like literature, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and culture.

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The White House agrees you have a small brain

May 31, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

I come bearing bad news. You have a small brain. It’s tiny, really. Although before you take umbrage, note I too have a small brain. In fact, every human who has ever lived has possessed only a meager clump of matter to think with. And this objective smallness of our cortices has been an unremarked upon and unchangeable background fact of history. Humans are stupid. Everyone knows it. Life goes on. Since everyone is stupid, the playing field is even.
The mind-body problem was discovered by a princess

May 23, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia—the first person to fully understand the paradoxical nature of the mind-problem, a mathematician, the possible romantic interest of Descartes, and an eventual abbess—was born in 1618, and lived in exile with her family in the Netherlands, a political refuge after her father’s brief reign.
Desiderata #12: links and commentary

May 18, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

The Desiderata series is a monthly roundup of links and thoughts, as well as an open thread and ongoing AMA in the comments for paid subscribers (along with a few extra links). 1 of 11. Since the last Desiderata, The Intrinsic Perspective published:Why is my novel a hit in Italy but not the United States? Is it luck? Culture? Or some secret third thing? Elon Musk's Substack ban was needless drama. Where did the adults go?
Your IQ isn't 160. No one's is.

May 9, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

One cannot help but run into people who clearly fantasize about the following scenario: All the great geniuses of the past sit down and take some sort of culture-invariant IQ test, and then we get to line up the numbers and compare them, finally settling once and for all who was the greatest genius of humanity.
The Intrinsic Podcast #2: Traditional publishing is dying

Apr 27, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

The Intrinsic Podcast continues upon a theme. If the inaugural episode with last guest Adam Mastroianni was about science outside of academia, this one with Elle Griffin is about writing outside the traditional publishing industry. Who’s Elle? She writes the Substack The Novelleist, has written for outlets like Esquire and Forbes, and is working on her own serialized novel and kickstarted book.
I owe my career to the SAT

Apr 19, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

Sing, America, of our troubled relationship with meritocracy. Sing of a nation without aristocrats, and yet in which you can find aristocrats summering on Martha’s Vineyard, flying in private planes to Davos, or staying in air-conditioned trailers at hidden encampments at Burning Man. Sing, America, of the system into which we are thrown at an early age, wherein those with the advantages of money and connections do better than those without. This isn’t the start of a political screed.
Elon Musk's Substack ban was needless drama

Apr 10, 2023 | erikhoel.substack.com | Erik P. Hoel

You didn’t hear from me last week because, right as I was about to publish, links to Substack were banned on Twitter. Shortly after, everything I’ve written here on The Intrinsic Perspective—all ~222,000 words, or about three books worth—was labeled as “spammy or unsafe” by Twitter. When the trouble first started I thought it must be a mistake, so I held off publishing, wondering what was going on.