Someone once told me that ethicists were often actually psychopaths, that people with a working ethical sensibility were not interested in studying it.
Seems possible.
Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
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Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#72See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Ariely , author of (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, later accused of data fraud and academic misconduct.
Also Jonah Lehrer, author of pop science books Imagine and How We Decide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Lehrer
This is kind of surreal. I have just realised that I have merged the authors Johann Hari and Jonah Lehrer into one person. I had always assumed Johann Hari had made a fortunate recovery from the Imagine/How We decide scandals to write successful books like Lost Connections.
I was feeling guilty for besmirching Johann Hari's reputation in my own mind until looking at his wiki page and finding the HE TOO was involved in both plagiarism and fabrication scandals like Jonah Lehrer.
Weird. Explains the mental merger I guess.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#73Adding to the irony: She is the best-selling author, most recently, of “Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules in Work and Life.”
Yet another example for assumption that all book titles with that sort of semi-colon + second sentence title are universally lowest common denominator crap, at best.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#74Individual researchers have huge incentives for fraud, but large universities are the ones who most need to look inward here. HBS could become a beacon for stronger research practices in this area - requiring study preregistration and data collection methods that carefully trace provenance and changes. If HBS has fewer but better quirky marketing psychology studies, their reputation will do well. However for an indiv…
For similar reasons, I left academia. I joined academia for the pursuit of truth, and forth the glory of Knowing. But it turned out that academia doesn’t really do this anymore, it just sells itself as doing these things. Academia is entirely a “reputation” system, as it turns out, from paper publishing to student-evaluations to “public rankings.” As it turns out, the capitalist marketplace must also contend with the…
I'd like to hear more about how you've found more honesty in the private sector.
"academia doesn’t really do this anymore"
I've heard this from more than one current or former academic. Some argue it's due to market logic entering academia. It sounds like you take a different view?
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#75There is this pattern where things are always the opposite of their message: - Dishonesty expert is dishonest - Politicians who constantly talk about freedom want to restrict anything that doesn't fit their world view - Militant anti-gay preachers hire call boys - Diversity teams are the least diverse
I've always wondered if ethics class impart any ethics at all. If you're not an ethical person, why would you become one after taking such a class? If you're already an ethical person, taking a class in it is pointless.
If there are swift and just penalties for unethical behavior, then one does not need to actually learn how to be internally ethical, they just need to learn the social and political framework that's already established.
As you might expect, it's among "one of the most popular" courses offered at Harvard.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#76There is this pattern where things are always the opposite of their message: - Dishonesty expert is dishonest - Politicians who constantly talk about freedom want to restrict anything that doesn't fit their world view - Militant anti-gay preachers hire call boys - Diversity teams are the least diverse
> - Diversity teams are the least diverse IME DEI is usually a function rolled into HR (although they often contract with diversity training firms), rather than a separate team, except at large companies. Where there are separate DEI teams, they tend to be the most diverse, at least among the white-collar workforce - the requirements for these jobs tend to be quite nonspecific, because they don't really need to do mu…
It's a make work job for providing political favors, e.g. politician's niece is given an easy job in exchange for future or past favors.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#77There is this pattern where things are always the opposite of their message: - Dishonesty expert is dishonest - Politicians who constantly talk about freedom want to restrict anything that doesn't fit their world view - Militant anti-gay preachers hire call boys - Diversity teams are the least diverse
One of Jung's more interesting concepts is that of enantiodromia - where things taken to extremes become their opposite. It's also a concept in the I Ching (where the "strongest" lines are the ones the ones changed into their opposite), and in Nietzsche's BG&E.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#78There is this pattern where things are always the opposite of their message: - Dishonesty expert is dishonest - Politicians who constantly talk about freedom want to restrict anything that doesn't fit their world view - Militant anti-gay preachers hire call boys - Diversity teams are the least diverse
> - Diversity teams are the least diverse IME DEI is usually a function rolled into HR (although they often contract with diversity training firms), rather than a separate team, except at large companies. Where there are separate DEI teams, they tend to be the most diverse, at least among the white-collar workforce - the requirements for these jobs tend to be quite nonspecific, because they don't really need to do mu…
They may be more diverse in terms of race and sexuality, but have very little diversity of opinion and worldview.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
For similar reasons, I left academia. I joined academia for the pursuit of truth, and forth the glory of Knowing. But it turned out that academia doesn’t really do this anymore, it just sells itself as doing these things. Academia is entirely a “reputation” system, as it turns out, from paper publishing to student-evaluations to “public rankings.” As it turns out, the capitalist marketplace must also contend with the…
I'd like to hear more about how you've found more honesty in the private sector. "academia doesn’t really do this anymore" I've heard this from more than one current or former academic. Some argue it's due to market logic entering academia. It sounds like you take a different view?
I have no idea what I'm talking about but I would speculate that looking at how.much.freaking.money these schools have provides us a window into what these schools actually focus on. The focus seems to be making and having a ton of money. This compounded by the trends we see in fewer tenure positions, worse pay for associate profs, a glut of admin positions and admin pay, etc.
So yeah, I'd say the observation that market logic is entering academia has some surface level reasons to support it.
Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty
#80There is this pattern where things are always the opposite of their message: - Dishonesty expert is dishonest - Politicians who constantly talk about freedom want to restrict anything that doesn't fit their world view - Militant anti-gay preachers hire call boys - Diversity teams are the least diverse
We like these fall-from-grace stories but there's a subpattern to this that can't be articulated so easily. Literal "corruption" comes close.
See also: every freedom fighter that launches a coup to overthrow a dictator, then becomes a dictator themselves within a decade. Or cops that get caught stealing child porn from the evidence locker, despite not being pedophiles by any definition.
Not all these types start this way, or are inherently hypocrites. Repeat exposure to something tends to rub off. You can't rail against the evils of prostitution as the basis of your career without being forced to spend cycles processing what about them is so awful. Thinking about round tits on display, the mechanics of sex, etc. The unthinkable is literally on your mind 24/7, which effectively normalizes the behavior and makes it less outrageous over time. It's a weird cycle of grooming yourself to accept what you purport to hate.
I'm an anti-fraud professional. I'm surrounded by so much of it (seemingly without consequence) that I'm frequently tempted to break bad myself. I never will, but it's a "conscious" decision (as an extremely stubborn Slav) and not because I'm a saint. Temptation just comes with the territory. It wears you down until you fail and make headlines in the most humiliating way.