80k After Hours
80k After Hours
The 80,000 Hours team
Luisa and Keiran on free will, and the consequences of never feeling enduring guilt or shame
1 hour 37 minutes Posted Apr 22, 2023 at 1:47 am.
Keiran’s intro
The chat begins
Keiran’s origin story
Charles Whitman
Luisa’s origin story
It’s unlucky to be a bad person
Doubts about whether free will is an illusion
Acting this way just for other people
Feeling shame over not working enough
First-person / third-person distinction
Would Luisa become a worse person if she felt less guilt?
Feeling bad about not being a different person
Would Luisa donate less money?
Would Luisa become a worse friend?
Pride
Love
Bears and hurricanes
Jerk Syndrome
Keiran’s outro
0:00
1:37:58
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Show notes

In this episode of 80k After Hours, Luisa Rodriguez and Keiran Harris chat about the consequences of letting go of enduring guilt, shame, anger, and pride.

Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.

They cover:

  • Keiran’s views on free will, and how he came to hold them
  • What it’s like not experiencing sustained guilt, shame, and anger
  • Whether Luisa would become a worse person if she felt less guilt and shame, specifically whether she’d work fewer hours, or donate less money, or become a worse friend
  • Whether giving up guilt and shame also means giving up pride
  • The implications for love
  • The neurological condition ‘Jerk Syndrome’
  • And some practical advice on feeling less guilt, shame, and anger


Who this episode is for:

  • People sympathetic to the idea that free will is an illusion
  • People who experience tons of guilt, shame, or anger
  • People worried about what would happen if they stopped feeling tons of guilt, shame, or anger


Who this episode isn’t for:

  • People strongly in favour of retributive justice
  • Philosophers who can’t stand random non-philosophers talking about philosophy
  • Non-philosophers who can’t stand random non-philosophers talking about philosophy


Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.

Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Milo McGuire
Transcriptions: Katy Moore