Julia Galef

Julia Galef
Born	(1983-07-04) July 4, 1983 Silver Spring, Maryland
Alma mater	Columbia University
School	Scientific skepticism
Main interests	Philosophy of science, applied rationality
Website
juliagalef.com

Julia Galef (born July 4, 1983) is president and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. She is a writer and public speaker on the topics of rationality, science, technology and design. She serves on the board of directors of the New York City Skeptics and, since 2010, co-hosts their official podcast called Rationally Speaking together with philosopher Massimo Pigliucci.^[1][2] She also blogs with her brother Jesse on the website Measure of Doubt.

Biography

Julia was born and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. She has a brother, Jesse, who later became director of communications for the Secular Student Alliance. She credits her parents, who she describes as "truth-seekers", as contributors to her level of skepticism and interest for critical thinking. Her dad would, instead of giving the answer, lead his children through the reasoning process while listening to their arguments or let them look things up. Also, her dad kept his children on their toes by telling them untruths as a joke.^[3][4]

Galef attended the International Baccalaureate program at Richard Montgomery High School. She then attended, from 2001 to 2005, Columbia University in New York City, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Statistics. While an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant for several professors of business, economics, and statistics, and co-authored a paper with the World Bank assessing the performance of non-governmental organizations in Bangladesh. Upon graduation, Julia moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she worked for a year as a research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and for another year as a casewriter for Harvard Business School in the Business, Government and International Economics department.^{[5][note 1]}

Julia then moved to New Haven, CT to begin a PhD in economics at Yale University. However, she left the program after one year, having decided against a career in economics. She then moved back to New York and worked for several years as a freelance writer. She at first focused on urban planning and design, and spent over a year as an editor at The Architect's Newspaper. She also wrote for other for design and architecture magazines such as Metropolis, the Architects' Journal and Planetizen.^[6] Around 2009, however, she began transitioning into covering science and philosophy, since she kept wanting to ask her interview subjects, “And how do you know that?” and found that only scientists and philosophers were truly happy to answer that question.

Involvement in the skeptic movement (2009)

When she became annoyed with the unfounded positive claims by the architects she interviewed, her brother Jesse, who was associated with the American Humanist Association, suggested that she write an article for The Humanist. For her article Uncertainty in Science: It’s a Feature, Not a Bug on the public's misunderstanding of scientific principles, she interviewed people at the first Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, that was held in September 2009. Here she met the philosopher of science Massimo Pigliucci who, weeks after, asked her to co-host the Rationally Speaking Podcast with him.^[4] Their first episode was released on February 1, 2010. The show hosted conversations with public intellectuals such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss, James Randi and Peter Singer. Shortly thereafter, Julia also began blogging and speaking about rationality at conferences and organizations (see list below). In August 2010 she joined the board of directors of the New York City Skeptics.^[7]

In 2011, Julia started writing with her brother for their combined blog Measure of Doubt.^[8] Also in 2011, Julia wrote for Religion Dispatches^[9] and Scientific American.^[10] Since April 19, 2015 Julia is the sole host of the Rationally Speaking podcast.^[11]

Center for Applied Rationality (2012)

In 2012, some of Julia's friends, who studied rationality and computer science, found potential funders to start a new organization to train people to be more rational.^[12] Mid-2012 Julia co-founded and became president of this non-profit think tank called Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) which is part of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. With the start of a new career, she moved from New York to San Francisco Bay Area, in Berkeley, CA, where the organization is based. CFAR develops and tests strategies of cognitive tools and triggers that are know from research in the field of cognitive science on how people form and change their beliefs. The organization also gives workshops to train people to internalize and use strategies based the principles of rationality on a more regular basis to improve their reasoning and decision making skills and achieve goals.^[4]

Galef's activities as a writer, podcaster and president of CFAR are mentioned by the The Atlantic,^[13] The Verge,^[14] and NPR.^[15]

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.^[16][17] Subsequent to her exposure with Big Think as an expert on the topic of rationality, she was interviewed in 2014 by Forbes,^[18] Fast Company,^[19] and The Wall Street Journal.^[20] In particular her idea of keeping a "surprise journal" received attention, which is one of the techniques Julia 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 Julia it can be easier to adjust internalized beliefs by framing the new evidence as a surprise.^[19][21]

Intellectual arguments

Julia Galef often explains common confusions and popular misconceptions of rationality. Frequently she distinguishes epistemic rationality from instrumental rationality. She describes epistemic rationality as a way of reasoning according to logic and the principles of probability theory to form beliefs and conclusions. In contract, she describes instrumental rationality as a decision-making process in which people choose the action that maximizes their expected utility, whatever their goals are.^[4]

Julia popularized the concept of Straw Vulcan,^{[note 2]} the incorrect perception about rationality as a way of thinking that denies emotions such as love and lacks appreciations for beauty. It refers to the fictional character Mr. Spock (a half-Vulcan) in Star Trek, who is often seen as a poster child for this caricature of rationality. On the contrary, Galef argues that Mr. Spock's failure to adjust his thinking, even though he experiences that humans do not always make rational decisions, is a case of irrationality.^[22] In 2011, Galef gave a talk on this subject at Skepticon.

In an interview with Forbes she argued that, humans have evolved an insatiable appetite for resources and status, while their genes do not particularly care whether they enjoy that. She argues that resources can only generate lasting happiness when it increases the opportunity to do things one values.^[23]

Performances

Julia has performed as a moderator, panelist and public speaker at skeptic conferences. In 2011, she gave a talk at Skepticon 4, called The Straw Vulcan and in 2014 she gave a talk at The Amaz!ng Meeting called How To Change Your Mind. In 2015, she moderated a conversation between Lawrence M. Krauss and Richard Dawkins at Het Denkgelag in Antwerp, Belgium. She also gives public lectures to organizations including the Center for Inquiry and the Secular Student Alliance.

Panelist

• 2010: Moderating discussion at Secular Student Alliance Annual Conference^[24]
• 2010: Moderating discussion 'Arguing with Non-Skeptics' at NECSS (with James Randi, George Hrab, DJ Grothe, Steve Mirsky as panelists)^[25]
• 2011: How Should Rationalist Approach Death at Skepticon 4 (with James Croft, Greta Christina, and Eliezer Yudkowsky)^[26]
• 2012: How Should Rationalists Approach Relationships and Marriage? (with Chana Messinger, Matt Dillahunty and Adam Lee) at Skepticon 5^[27]
• 2014: Can Rationality be Taught at The Amaz!ng Meeting (with Daniel Dennett and others)^[28]

Speaker

Galef was a speaker on Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism from 2010 to 2015.^[29][30]

• 2010: Aliens, Psychics and Ghosts, Oh My! Or, How Our Brains Fool Us Into Believing Strange Things at Nerd Nite NYC^[31]
• 2011:The Straw Vulcan at Skepticon 4^[32]
• 2012: Rationality and the Future at the Singularity Summit.^[33]
• 2012: A Rational Future at Skepticon 5^[34]
• 2013: Keynote speech at Humanist Community of Central Ohio's annual Winter Solstice Banquet (with Jesse Galef)^[35]
• 2014: Applied Rationality at The Mind and Altruism organized by Effective Altruism Melbourne^[36]
• 2014: How To Change Your Mind at The Amaz!ng Meeting^[37]

Moderator

• 2015: A Passion for Science and Reason at Het Denkgelag (conversation between Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss)^[38][39]

Scientific publications

• Varun Gauri & Julia Galef, (2005) NGOs in Bangladesh: Activities, resources, and governance.^[40][41]
• David Fisman et al., (2012) Estimating the Value of Connections to Vice-President Cheney (as co-author).^[42]

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julia Galef.

References

External links

Official website