Aaron Bergman's tweets, May 2022
Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in May 2022 and has not deleted: 91 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's.
This page is one month of the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets, which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: April 2022. Next month: June 2022.
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Reply to @StefanFSchubert, 23:21 UTC · 5 likes
Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert): @daniel_eth I think it has been made as a good-faith error. I'm sure mockingly as well.
I think it might also be literally correct lol
Monday, May 2, 2022
Reply, 01:41 UTC · 1 like
Wait why lol? I am that guy btw
Reply, 01:47 UTC · 1 like
Yup that’s me
Reply to @calebwatney, 01:53 UTC · 1 like
Caleb Watney (@calebwatney): The landed gentry is back baby
🪧Resurrect Henry George🪧
Reply, 19:26 UTC · 3 likes
(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)
Bro u came to the wrong corner of Twitter to try this on lol
Tweet, 21:13 UTC · 1 like
Not sure how much of a difference it's made, but 10 points to the UK Government for putting out a whole (book-length) report explaining+encouraging so-called "red-teaming" https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1027158/20210625-Red_Teaming_Handbook.pdf
Tweet, 22:35 UTC · 8 likes
Whitepill on Rogan is that he figured out how to get 11 million people (episode avg) to listen to in-depth, relatively intellectual+informative conversations and that this is a good thing
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Reply to @LinchZhang, 02:04 UTC · 2 likes
Linch (@LinchZhang): Asking the important questions out loud that I'm sure everybody's thinking:
"Are the birds sentient? Do they experience net pleasure or pain?"
(quoting @Aella_Girl: If you push the button, for the next 5 yrs, every time you think someone is attractive, a lil invisible bird descends on their shoulder at a random point over the next week and says "[name] thinks ur cute". Birds likewise descend on ur shoulder when others think you're cute. You:)
New wild animal suffering intervention just dropped
Reply to @Aella_Girl, 02:10 UTC · 2 likes
Aella (@Aella_Girl): Your gender:
Ngl one of the funnier of your poll/result combos
Thread, continued, 02:11 UTC · 2 likes
Not because of the cis/trans dimension - just male vs female
Reply to @robbensinger, 03:10 UTC · 5 likes
Rob Bensinger ⏹️ (@robbensinger): The sweet spot for EA PR is something like: 'friendly, nuanced, patient, and totally unapologetic about being a fire hose of inflammatory hot takes'. 🙂
IMO @robertwiblin strikes this balance pretty well on the 80k podcast
Reply to @MichaelTrazzi, 15:49 UTC · 8 likes
(The tweet being replied to by @MichaelTrazzi is no longer available.)
We’re fucked 🙃
Tweet, 18:03 UTC · 2 likes
It's tempting to dismiss the benefits of rationalism when you spend time (online or IRL) in rat circles, but nothing affirms the virtue of the whole project like spending time with smart people who do dumb shit just bc they haven't been exposed to rationalist memes
(1/3)
Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC · 2 likes
Just one example: someone I know well makes the salaried equivalent of >$100/hour, has plenty of savings, and regularly laments having little free time. But it didn't even cross his mind to consider hiring a handyman to fix a lightbulb part that was stuck in the ceiling
(2/3)
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Quote tweet, 08:49 UTC · 6 likes
Might make this my personality
Quoting void angel 𒌓 (@egregirls): holy shit I need to become portable co2 meter guy so badly
Tweet, 14:14 UTC · 3 likes
When a new social science-y book with an interesting thesis drops, every wonky podcast in existence drops what they’re doing and invites the very same author on to discuss. The authorship-podcasting-industrial complex must be stopped!
Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:26 UTC · 3 likes
Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung): the AI puts global poverty as a top cause area
Bernie Madoff says violent crime is more concerning than white collar crime
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Reply to @GluskerMartin, 02:01 UTC · 2 likes
(The tweet being replied to by @GluskerMartin is no longer available.)
Quote tweet, 02:08 UTC · 1 like
👀
Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18): Might make this my personality
Reply to @BecomingCritter, 17:21 UTC · 2 likes
critter (@BecomingCritter): What do you really care about that most people don’t?
Fish
Friday, May 6, 2022
Reply to @metakuna, 12:27 UTC · 5 likes
metakuna (14/100 blog posts) (@metakuna): @PradyuPrasad true racial equality will have been achieved only when I can make fun of indians 😤
True racial equality will be when I can like this Tweet
Reply to @peterwildeford, 21:50 UTC · 108 likes
Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford): Me attempting to teach math to GPT3
Seems possible it’s being intentionally incorrect because of your prompt. Probably lots of instances online of students getting answers wrong while getting tutored!
Reply to @nat_sharpe_, 21:52 UTC · 4 likes
(The tweet being replied to by @nat_sharpe is no longer available.)_
He should set prices higher - would you have *not* bought whatever you did for 2x or 5x the price? 50x? Test the limits, man!
Reply to @puheenix, 23:54 UTC · 5 likes
hart the phoenix (@puheenix): @AaronBergman18 @nat_sharpe_ imo the prices are cute (and cuteness is definitely core to his brand), and people will probably give him more anyway
No toddler🔞should be dependent 😤on the arbitrary⁉️kindness of strangers🎗! He should charge🧾a living🌻wage💰🤑
Monday, May 9, 2022
Reply to @Kirsten3531, 00:02 UTC · 2 likes
Kirsten (@Kirsten3531): What are some things you can buy or try in America (but not Britain)?
MLB baseball game, American football. I mean I’m sure they have those in Britain, but not at nearly the same scale. Also peanut butter, double or triple majoring in college, smoke-free bars, some uncommon pharmaceuticals like aducanumab, all things Native American
Tweet, 01:00 UTC · 5 likes
Incredibly unnerving to walk through a college town and notice that most people look younger than me. Guess I’m gettin’ old. Never consented to this
Reply to @GluskerMartin, 02:41 UTC · 3 likes
Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin): Can I interest you in the following (lmao) https://www.amazon.com/Better-Never-Have-Been-Existence/dp/0199549265/ref=nodl_
Yeah but I would not have consented to not having been born either. Checkmate antinatalism
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Tweet, 03:35 UTC · 2 likes
If I was a doctor I would 100% be starting up http://GetSemaglitudeQuick.com or some shit. The drug is one of the best things to happen to rich Westerners’ quality of life in a long time and seems like the whole world is sleeping on it
Thread, continued, 03:57 UTC · 3 likes
First ever impulse investment. Just bought the domain http://semaglitude.com for $14/year. Selling for $10k starting now. It’ll be funny as hell if this works
Reply to @cabowlogy, 04:05 UTC · 2 likes
(The tweet being replied to by @cabowlogy is no longer available.)
Price has been lowered to $50
Tweet, 04:08 UTC · 4 likes
Let this be a lesson to all: do not trust your financial intuitions during the four hour period after taking melatonin
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Tweet, 04:15 UTC · 6 likes
Turns out the random cardboard tube I’ve been using to open and close my vents for months has been holding my literal diploma this whole time 🙃
Reply to @robertwiblin, 17:23 UTC · 4 likes
(The tweet being replied to by @robertwiblin is no longer available.)
Well they’re gonna be a killer Carrick Flynn episode either way the election goes
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Reply to @anquetil, 04:32 UTC · 4 likes
Martin Anquetil (@anquetil): guess I picked an interesting time to be an unemployed 23 year old
Yo if you have “prev: @Google” in ur bio I think you’re gonna be ok
Reply to @PradyuPrasad, 04:38 UTC · 1 like
Pradyumna 🇸🇬 (@PradyuPrasad): Futures markets are usually run by them
True, I’ll take 6 thousand lemons to be delivered Jan 1, 2063
Quote tweet, 04:57 UTC · 3 likes
Twitter leaking into the real world - my extremely offline parents have decided to buy $10k worth as a direct result of me sending them this Tweet. Guess it’s legit!
Quoting Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits): My piece today is about a savings vehicle with an interest rate so ludicrously high—9.6 percent—that I initially assumed there must be a catch. Series I savings bonds do require you to lock your money up for a year. But beyond that there's no catch! https://fullstackeconomics.com/a-little-known-government-savings-vehicle-pays-9-6-percent-interest/
Reply to @cafedujord, 05:30 UTC · 9 likes
Jordan Grimes (on Bluesky @cafedujord) (@cafedujord): California suburbanites on water restrictions:
- What about my pool?
- Can I still wash my car once a week?
- I just spent $8k on grass, what will happen to it?
- Muh koi ponds!And my personal favorite: at least we won't have to build any low-income housing now, right?!
Ah yes, the progressive dogma that we must divert water away from poor people and to koi ponds
Reply to @karakfa, 08:27 UTC · 5 likes
karakfa (@karakfa): and that's probably left over from the era where ships were used for cargo.
And “ship” is left over from the days when they’d make a boat out of a hollowed-out tree https://www.etymonline.com/word/ship
Tweet, 15:13 UTC · 2 likes
My new investment strategy is “buy a small amount of BTC every time >10% of my timeline is people roasting crypto bros for losing money”
Thread, continued, 15:13 UTC · 2 likes
Yeah ik arguably I’m an idiot for investing at all and have indeed lost a bit of money, but don’t think it was the wrong call ex ante and don’t regret it
Friday, May 13, 2022
Tweet, 02:19 UTC · 5 likes
App idea I'd pay $10 or $20 for: a Reddit-like interface for Twitter in which:
- Subreddits correspond to users and you can:
1) Sort a single person's Tweets by New/Hot/Rising/Top/Controversial
2) Select a time frame for the latter two (e.g., "Top Tweets of the past month")
Reply, 16:25 UTC · 3 likes
(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)
Factory farming seems worse, but this makes top ten
Tweet, 17:26 UTC
Inflation got me ordering the 12-and-under kids meal, hoping the principle-agent misalignment is large enough that the cashier doesn’t ask questions
Reply to @principle_agent, 17:26 UTC · 2 likes
Principle Agent (@principle_agent): @AaronBergman18 Maybe you meant “principal–agent”?
Why do u exist?
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Tweet, 15:10 UTC · 2 likes
Hey #EconTwitter, can someone convince me that the solution to the Equity Premium Puzzle isn’t just that the appropriate comparison to stock returns is corporate bonds (which average >6%) rather than treasury bonds? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_premium_puzzle
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Reply, 18:06 UTC · 1 like
Yea maybe I phrased that wrong. More specifically, the proposition “if I was a turtle, I’d be better off” is neither true nor false
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Tweet, 02:52 UTC · 3 likes
A cold, hard truth is that the default Apple screensaver/background pictures are better than whatever different ones you're using, and deep down you know this to be true
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Reply to @nickcammarata, 15:55 UTC · 2 likes
Nick (@nickcammarata): Starting a single-purpose political party to make cars quieter (or electric), kill music in restaurants and everywhere else you don’t dance, and abolish emergency vehicles that scream every five minutes all day through every major city injecting cortisol into millions of people
Alternative: mail every resident 300mg capsules of phosphatidylserine to inhibit cortisol synthesis
Tweet, 16:11 UTC · 3 likes
This is the source to watch over coming weeks https://www.metaculus.com/questions/10973/total-estimated-monkeypox-infections-in-2022/
Tweet, 17:01 UTC · 548 likes
Ok I’m like 50% sure I solved @tylercowen’s and @danielgross’s “why do top achievers all drink Diet Coke?” thing. 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine, which is an indirect precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-with-tyler/id983795625?i=1000562226381
Thread, continued, 17:01 UTC · 75 likes
Tyrosine and phenylalanine are old in supplement form at around this dose as mild stimulants for this very reason - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylalanine …
Thread, continued, 17:01 UTC · 93 likes
but they only really work when ingested as isolates and without other amino acids! The aspartame in diet soda is probably the only widely available source of isolated phenylalanine! Hell yeah!
Quote tweet, 17:42 UTC · 5 likes
Update: standard nootropics dose is 500mg, but multiple bottles at 100mg each still seems like it should be a meaningful amount
Quoting Dan Elton (@moreisdifferent): This is a really great observation, but a can of Diet Coke only contains 104 mg of phenylalanine.
The people on /r/nootropics seem to like to take 0.5 - 3 g for nootropic effect.
My theory is the caffeine is in pure form, so you get more of a buzz, as with a caffeine pill...
Reply to @GluskerMartin, 18:52 UTC · 3 likes
Martin Glusker (@GluskerMartin): Whoa that’s crazy, and regular coke doesn’t have this?
Nah, corn syrup instead of aspartame!
Reply to @ns_whit, 20:53 UTC · 9 likes
Nick Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@ns_whit): @AaronBergman18 @tylercowen @danielgross If this were true, competitive tech companies would stock Diet Coke instead of weird flavored waters. Unless it would make the workforce too powerful…
Eh not sure markets are *that* efficient. And fwiw one of the few tech-ish offices I've been in did indeed have diet coke stocked!
Reply to @finmoorhouse, 23:16 UTC · 21 likes
Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse): Maybe a dumb q, but what's the claim here? That phenylalanine actually helps facilitate high achievement? That top achievers are disproportionately drawn to drinks with nootropic effects?
Not dumb - my initial tweets didn't include a well specified claim! If this theory is true, my best guess is several causal chains:
1. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> “achievement”...
Thread, continued, 23:17 UTC · 12 likes
2. Phenylalanine -> physiology black box -> improved energy and motivation -> associate DC with feeling well -> more DC, more phenylalanine; this feedback loop strongest for those who really like feeling energetic and motivated, who are likely successful through other channels
Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC · 8 likes
3. (1) and (2) -> people like Tyler notice that successful people drink DC and tell others -> aspiring high achievers know this (or more likely just have a slightly more positive association with DC than they otherwise would) -> they drink DC for the direct and signaling effects
Thread, continued, 23:18 UTC · 9 likes
4. DC seems “artificial” but plausibly isn’t unhealthy in a meaningful way -> people who like optimization/free lunches/engineering drink DC for the direct effect and signaling
5. Memetics among a social community, of which the mega-rich/successful are one
Maybe others too!
Thread, continued, 23:21 UTC · 7 likes
A few other things that seem plausibly good in DC:
* Small amount caffeine (46mg/12oz ~= 25%ish coffee) - maybe potentiated by phenylalanine?
* Carbonation/caffeine/water/sweetness -> satiety
* Acidity helps digestion(?)
* (unlikely) small amounts sodium, potassium, phosphorous
Reply to @JimmySteier, 23:23 UTC · 7 likes
Jimmy (@JimmySteier): Well aspartame is actually a dipeptide of aspartic acid and phenylalanine, so there’s likely some synergistic effect as aspartate is an NMDA agonist. Subjectively, Diet Coke feels differently from equiv. dose of tyrosine
Nice, thanks! NMDA is weird - I can't get a good handle on what it "does," but do know that antagonists tend to be sedatives. Ketamine, for instance!
Quote tweet, 23:26 UTC · 5 likes
Good question, putting my reply as a thread below!
Quoting Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse): @AaronBergman18 @tylercowen @danielgross Maybe a dumb q, but what's the claim here? That phenylalanine actually helps facilitate high achievement? That top achievers are disproportionately drawn to drinks with nootropic effects?
Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC · 2 likes
Not dumb - my initial tweets didn't include a well specified claim! If this theory is true, my best guess is several causal chains:
1. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> “achievement”
Thread, continued, 23:26 UTC · 2 likes
2. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> associate DC with feeling well -> more DC+phenylalanine; this feedback loop is strongest for people who really like feeling energetic and motivated, who are likely successful through other channels
Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC · 2 likes
3. (1) and (2) -> people like Tyler notice that successful people drink DC and tell others -> aspiring high achievers know this (or more likely just have a slightly more positive association with DC than they otherwise would) -> they drink DC for the direct and signaling effects
Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC · 2 likes
4. DC seems “artificial” but plausibly isn’t really unhealthy -> people who like optimization/free lunches/engineering drink DC for direct effect and signaling
5. Memetics among a social community, of which the mega-rich/successful are one
And maybe others!
Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC · 2 likes
Also there are a few other things that seem plausibly good in DC:
* Small amount of caffeine (46mg/12 oz ~= 15-35% that of coffee per oz) - maybe complemented/potentiated by phenylalanine?
Thread, continued, 23:27 UTC · 3 likes
* Sweetness/carbonation/caffeine/water promotes satiety -> eat less -> maybe good for cognition?
* Acidity helps digestion (?)
* (seems unlikely to matter) small amounts of sodium, potassium, phosphorous
/end
Friday, May 20, 2022
Reply to @MTabarrok, 01:10 UTC · 2 likes
Maxwell Tabarrok (@MTabarrok): I feel like the list of examples Daniel gave was way too small to justify believing that more high achievers drink diet coke than the average person. It's a very popular drink! The base rate is just high already.
I'm def not certain this is legit, but I don't know if I'd call diet soda in general "very popular," particularly among, say, graduates of the top 50 US colleges (or any other reference demographic. *I* drink pretty often haha but I'm always the only one doing so!...
Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:24 UTC · 28 likes
Aaron Bergman, May 19, 2022: Ok I’m like 50% sure I solved @tylercowen’s and @danielgross’s “why do top achievers all drink Diet Coke?” thing. 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine,…
On the off chance this makes it onto MR and gets some eyeballs: the Fish Welfare Initiative has a $250k funding gap for 2022. Extremely high altruistic impact IMO
I'll match donations up to at least $1k (total of my own money, maybe somewhat more)!
https://www.fishwelfareinitiative.org/donate
Thread, continued, 01:32 UTC · 3 likes
DM me a receipt to get the match going!
Quote tweet, 01:36 UTC · 6 likes
Let's give this a try
Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18): Tyrosine and phenylalanine are old in supplement form at around this dose as mild stimulants for this very reason - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylalanine …
Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:43 UTC · 2 likes
Aaron Bergman, May 20, 2022: DM me a receipt to get the match going!
To leverage whatever psychological bias the "bandwagon" effect refers to, I'll list whenever I match a donation. One already done, $100 from each of us!
Reply to @DooByte, 04:41 UTC · 3 likes
DooByte (@DooByte): Any healthier alternative to achieve the same effect?
Pure phenylalanine! Comes in higher doses in supplement form, so be careful, do your research, etc. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00BQ1BDOY?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_T6867WY7BMSV98M100MY
Reply to @cafreiman, 13:09 UTC · 24 likes
Chris Freiman (@cafreiman):
Quote tweet, 14:09 UTC · 5 likes
Guess this is a thing
Quoting T.C.P. (@techceopepe): In this thread we will post pictures of rich guys drinking Diet Coke
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Reply to @BroductManager, 04:00 UTC · 2 likes
rahul (@BroductManager): (last contrarian voice) classic thielian lesson: value creation and value capture are independent variables
@tszzl @BroductManager ask your crypto m/billionaire friends to spare some ETH for the fishies and show the aquatic world what shitpoasting can accomplish
Reply to @retttx, 04:13 UTC · 3 likes
Everett (@retttx): I bring you into this reply thread and you shill some EA cause? 🙈
That would be correct 🤑
Reply to @mattputz_, 05:11 UTC · 3 likes
Matt Putz (@mattputz_): What's your subjective probability that an otherwise healthy and productive person could improve their longterm productivity by drinking Diet Coke?
Or
Should I be doing this?
Hmm given that the trend exists (65%) and that this explanation has something to do with it (50%), probably something like 70% in the short run (<6 weeks) and 20% in the long run? But I’d expect the effect size to be tiny other way
Thread, continued, 05:12 UTC · 3 likes
I’d say just get a pure phenylalanine supplement and see how that goes. Seems really unlikely DC *per se* is super helpful
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Reply to @Aella_Girl, 11:23 UTC · 14 likes
Aella (@Aella_Girl): I'm so confused how some people seem to hate me so much. I don't think I feel that way about anybody else except maybe senator warren
One of the funniest tweets I’ve ever seen right here
Monday, May 23, 2022
Tweet, 15:17 UTC · 1 like
Upper middle class Boomers will literally pay four years of private college tuition but take pride in saving $0.09 on store brand dental floss
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Reply to @EAheadlines, 22:59 UTC · 4 likes
EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines): post your EA score. let's quantify our intuitions 👍👍👍
99.8% - I bite just about every bullet, am a hedonic utilitarian moral realist, and generally disagree with the EA consensus in the direction of “you should take your own ideas more seriously”
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Tweet, 18:14 UTC · 3 likes
This is possibly the least important issue of all time, but is there any reason we have to keep carrying around a physical drivers license? Like at all?
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Reply to @daniel_filan, 07:21 UTC · 2 likes
(The tweet being replied to by @daniel_filan is no longer available.)
@ETVPod is near the efficient frontier of good faith x hard core leftiness
Friday, May 27, 2022
Tweet, 01:39 UTC · 8 likes
Dear wonky contrarians remarking on the empirical rarity of school and other mass shootings:
The psychological distress these inflict on hundreds of millions of Americans is indirect and maybe even irrational but real nonetheless and so should factor into policymaking
Reply to @algekalipso, 04:02 UTC · 2 likes
Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson (@algekalipso): Philosophers are the best people to work on many intellectual problems.
In general, philosophers are smart, intellectually curious, and verbally capable.
Yet, I don't trust philosophers with philosophy.
Why is that?
Simple: philosophy is way too hard for most philosophers.
(quoting @AgnesCallard: Who do you trust most)
Do you trust category of people with philosophy, then?
Reply to @NathanpmYoung, 19:40 UTC · 3 likes
Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung): This is an interesting paper with an arresting conclusion.
I don't read papers much. I find them intimidating. This paper is 71 pages long. What specific steps would you take to decide if its conclusions were roughly as stated.
image attached
(quoting @AwayBerk: People stay in poverty because poverty is a shackle. https://economics.mit.edu/files/21191)
Get a bigger account to tweet it out enthusiastically, watch all the science skeptic nerds tear the paper apart in the comments
Saturday, May 28, 2022
Tweet, 17:43 UTC · 5 likes
I have never felt so understood
Reply to @kennymcduck, 17:45 UTC · 2 likes
Ken M (@kennymcduck): Is there a massively untapped men's body positive market?
Nah we all look like that
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Quote tweet, 11:02 UTC · 2 likes
This is the correct take
Quoting Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias): @jtlevy What’s interesting is that absolutely everyone seems to agree that there is some threshold of deadliness at which it’s fine to prohibit individual ownership … for all the fussing about 2A concepts the actual fight is just about where to draw the line.
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