24-535: Julia Galef ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ə f / ; born July 4, 1983) is an American writer, speaker and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality . She hosts Rationally Speaking , the official podcast of New York City Skeptics, which she has done since its inception in 2010, sharing the show with co-host and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and produced by Benny Pollak until 2015. Galef was born in 1983 in Maryland . She received
48-523: A "surprise journal" received attention, which is one of the techniques Galef uses to record incidents where her expectations were wrong, in order to recognize personal faulty assumptions that expose and counterweight the " bias blind spot ". According to Galef, it can be easier to adjust internalized beliefs by framing the new evidence as a surprise. In February 2016, Galef delivered a TED talk on, "Why you think you're right — even if you're wrong", encouraging critical self-skepticism and prioritizing coming to
72-459: A "wry fanfic analysis". Essayist Linda Börzsei described TV Tropes as a technological continuum of classical archetypal literary criticisms , capable of deconstructing recurring elements from creative works in an ironic fashion. Economist Robin Hanson , inspired by a scholarly analysis of Victorian literature, suggests TV Tropes offers a veritable treasure trove of information about fiction –
96-509: A BA in statistics from Columbia University . In 2010 she joined the board of directors of the New York City Skeptics. She co-founded and became president of the nonprofit Center for Applied Rationality in 2012. The organization also gives workshops to train people to internalize and use strategies based on the principles of rationality on a more regular basis to improve their reasoning and decision-making skills and achieve goals. She
120-500: A case of irrationality. Center for Applied Rationality The Center for Applied Rationality ( CFAR ) is a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California , that hosts workshops on rationality and cognitive bias . It was founded in 2012 by Julia Galef , Anna Salamon, Michael Smith and Andrew Critch, to improve participants' rationality using "a set of techniques from math and decision theory for forming your beliefs about
144-428: A financial disincentive to discuss" such topics. Pornographic tropes and works, as well as additional content deemed inappropriate for coverage, were also removed from the site following the incident. In an interview with TV Tropes co-founder Fast Eddie, Gawker Media 's blog io9 described the tone of contributions to the site as "often light and funny". Cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling once described its style as
168-423: A prime opportunity for research into its nature. In Lifehacker , Nick Douglas compared TV Tropes to Misplaced Pages , recommending to "use [TV Tropes] when Misplaced Pages feels impenetrable, when you want opinions more than facts, or when you've finished a Misplaced Pages page and now you want the juicy parts, the hard-to-confirm bits that Misplaced Pages doesn't share." Writing for The Believer , Chantel Tattolli commented that "It
192-488: A tongue-in-cheek way as "The Other Wiki"). Articles on the site often relate to real life or point out real situations where certain tropes are applied. It has used its informal style to describe topics such as science, philosophy, politics, and history under its Useful Notes section. TV Tropes does not have notability standards for the works it covers. In October 2010, in what the site refers to as "The Google Incident", Google temporarily withdrew its AdSense service from
216-444: A way of reasoning according to logic and the principles of probability theory to form beliefs and conclusions. In contrast, she describes instrumental rationality as a decision-making process in which people choose the action that maximizes their expected utility, whatever their goals are. Galef discussed the concept of Straw Vulcan , originally coined by the website TV Tropes , to describe the incorrect perception about rationality as
240-454: A way of thinking that denies emotions such as love and lacks appreciations for beauty. It refers to the fictional character Spock (a half- Vulcan ) in Star Trek , who is often seen to exemplify this caricature of rationality. Galef argues that, given the gross irrationality Spock has seen in humans, his failure to adjust his expectations about humans' ability to make rational decisions is itself
264-447: A wooded retreat where CFAR was holding an event. According to police, the suspects were not cooperative and spoke incoherently. Flyers found by deputies suggested they were protesting artificial intelligence and CFAR. TV Tropes TV Tropes is a wiki that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices , which it refers to as tropes , within many creative works. Since its establishment in 2004,
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#1733085147697288-601: A writer, podcaster and president of the Center for Applied Rationality are mentioned by The Atlantic , The Verge , and NPR . In 2014, she wrote several articles and recorded several short videos for Big Think , some of which are part of the Big Think Mentor's workshops. Subsequent to her exposure with Big Think as an expert on the topic of rationality, she was interviewed in 2014 by Forbes , Fast Company , and The Wall Street Journal . In particular her idea of keeping
312-416: Is deeply satisfying to go there and reckon with the patterns made over time, across culture, medium, and genre—and to catch them in rotation." In the book Media After Deleuze , authors David Savat and Tauel Harper say that while TV Tropes does offer a "wonderful archeology of storytelling", the site undermines creativity and experience by attempting to "classify and represent" every part of a work. The site
336-464: Is in use" but is not open source . Before October 2010, it was possible to edit anonymously; however, registration is now mandatory for all other activities besides viewing the website. It has two subwikis meant to categorize the more informal tropes and is held to less rigorous standards. Darth Wiki, named after Darth Vader from Star Wars as a play on "the dark side" of TV Tropes, is a resource for more criticism-based trope examples or common ways
360-647: Is part of the rationality movement surrounding Eliezer Yudkowsky 's web site LessWrong , from which CFAR originated. Paul Slovic and Keith Stanovich have served as advisors. The group taught classes for Facebook and the Thiel Fellowship . A scholarship funded by the founder of Skype , Jaan Tallinn , has been used to send selected Estonian students to workshops held by the Center for Applied Rationality. On 15 November 2019, four people dressed in Guy Fawkes masks were arrested for allegedly barricading off
384-600: The Center for Inquiry and the Secular Student Alliance . From 2010 to 2015, she was a speaker for the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism . Galef began writing the blog Measure of Doubt in 2011 with her brother, as well as writing for Religion Dispatches and Scientific American . Since April 2015 she has been the sole host of the Rationally Speaking podcast. Galef's activities as
408-502: The 1990s. He sold the site in 2014 to Drew Schoentrup and Chris Richmond , who then launched a Kickstarter to overhaul the codebase and design. Initially focused on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer , TV Tropes has since expanded its coverage of many forms of media, including fan fiction , and many other subjects, including Internet works such as Misplaced Pages (often referred to in
432-661: The correct viewpoint using "scout mindset" instead of working to ensure your current viewpoint is seen as correct with a "soldier mindset". The talk was covered by National Public Radio 's TED Radio Hour in November 2016. In 2021, her first book The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't was published by Penguin. Julia Galef often explains common confusions and popular misconceptions of rationality . Frequently she distinguishes Richard Foley's concept of "epistemic rationality" from Max Weber 's " instrumental rationality ". She describes epistemic rationality as
456-659: The site after determining that pages regarding adult and mature tropes were inconsistent with its terms of service. The site separated NSFG articles (Not Safe for Google) from SFG articles (Safe for Google) in order to allow discussion of these kinds of tropes. In a separate incident in 2012, in response to other complaints by Google, TV Tropes changed its guidelines to restrict coverage of sexist tropes and rape tropes. Feminist blog The Mary Sue criticized this decision, as it censored documentation of sexist tropes in video games and young adult fiction . ThinkProgress additionally condemned Google AdSense itself for "providing
480-551: The site has shifted focus from covering various tropes to those in general media, toys, writings, and their associated fandoms , as well as some non-media subjects such as history, geography, and politics. The nature of the site as a provider of commentary on pop culture and fiction has attracted attention and criticism from several web personalities and blogs . Users of the site's community are called "Tropers", which primarily consist of 18-34 year olds. From April 2008 until July 2012, TV Tropes published free content . After that,
504-517: The site modified its license to allow only non-commercial distribution of its content but continued to host the prior submissions under a new distribution license. The TV Tropes website runs on its own wiki engine software, an extremely modified version of PmWiki to the point where the PmWiki website lists that it "no longer uses PmWiki in any way; the only trace that remains is in the URL" and that "no code
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#1733085147697528-413: The wiki is inappropriately edited, and Sugar Wiki is about praise-based tropes, such as funny or heartwarming moments, and is meant to be "the sweet side" of TV Tropes. TV Tropes was founded in 2004 by a programmer under the pseudonym "Fast Eddie." He described himself as having become interested in the conventions of genre fiction while studying at MIT in the 1970s and after browsing Internet forums in
552-500: The world as accurately as possible". Its president since 2021 is Anna Salamon. CFAR's training draws upon fields such as psychology and behavioral economics in an effort to improve people's mental habits. Jennifer Kahn visited the group and described its strengths and flaws in the New York Times . CFAR has conducted a survey of participants which indicates that workshops reduce neuroticism and increase perceived efficacy. CFAR
576-652: Was elected a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in 2015. In 2009, Galef began co-hosting the Rationally Speaking Podcast with the philosopher of science Massimo Pigliucci . Their first episode was released on February 1, 2010. The show has hosted conversations with public intellectuals such as Neil deGrasse Tyson , Lawrence Krauss , James Randi , and Peter Singer . Galef frequently speaks on rationality and moderates debates at skeptic conferences. She gives public lectures to organizations including
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