October 2018 Finance Report

6 thoughts on “October 2018 Finance Report”

1. Hey Niall,

   Are you shutting down FBB or closing it to new clients? If the former, curious why as it looks to be a good part of your income, at least for October.

   Thanks,
   Nate

   Reply

   • Hey Nate,

     I’m closing it to new clients. Will keep all the material online for at least a year, then turn it into downloadable PDF’s so students can still access it at any time.

     The course has been a decent source of income but, despite my best efforts, it’s never quite reached the level I was aiming for financially, so it’s time to move on to other things.

     Reply

2. Cult leaders, authoritarians, and others like them don’t always start with the most vile or incorrect ideas.

   The danger with people like Peterson (and Ted Cruz, Ben Shapiro, and others) is:
   a) they are intelligent and
   b) they are *highly* skilled in the arts of debate and persuasion which means
   c) they are able to make compelling arguments about false ideas (anthropogenic climate change denial, creationism, eating an all-meat diet will cure all ills, anti-gmo, anti-vax, and more)

   I’ve not read Peterson’s book, but I’ve watched many of his interviews and talks and I’m guessing his book is full of his non-controversial ideas. It’s how people like that draw an audience. As the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice per day.

   I’ll point out that this isn’t solely an issue with people on the right. Sam Harris, who I’m a fan of, uses meditation in the same way. There is no compelling evidence of its efficacy, but he makes a compelling argument for it anyway. Of course, meditation probably isn’t going to ruin people lives like a compelling anti-vax argument so I generally give him a pass on it. 🙂

   Reply

   • Hey Karol,

     I thought there were a wealth of studies by now showing the benefits of meditation, but some quick googling brought up this:
     https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wheres-the-proof-that-mindfulness-meditation-works1/

     So thanks for that 🙂

     Anyway, regarding Peterson, I can’t say I’m familiar with all his ideas, but I have heard him talk about his all-meat diet and he was very careful to say he didn’t recommend it for anyone else and it didn’t make sense to him biologically, but the diet seemed to be working for him so he kept doing it. I don’t know how he could have done any better there except by perhaps refusing to talk about it in case anyone mistook what he was saying as a dietary recommendation.

     Aside from that though, I still don’t see why he’s so controversial. Is there a specific idea you’ve heard him talk about that would help explain all the outrage?

     Reply

     • Again, he’s well spoken and intelligent and highly skilled in rhetoric and apologism so he’s a difficult one. I’ve been following him peripherally for about 3 or 4 years (his target “red pill” audience fascinates me) so its been a death by a thousand cuts situation. He’s never vile, often well spoken and clear. But lots of things over the years that have made me go, “huh? what?”

       I’m not sure if this is why he’s controversial in general, but he’s been a long time anthropogenic climate change denier and troll. Tough to dig up all the evidence quickly but here’s one https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1024870660022124544 and here’s another https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/485821302557528064

       If you do a deep dive on him you’ll begin to see where he’s a bad faith actor. Has strong wrong views and is unwilling to change based on the facts.

       Here’s one example of a death by a thousand cuts. Not a huge deal in and of itself, but it’s factually wrong and provided as absolute truth: “Nazism was an atheist doctrine.” It’s the typical “communism is atheism” and “nazism is atheism” type of wrong argument that is generally meaningless, but shows where a person is coming from. (from his Reddit AMA https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8m21kw/i_am_dr_jordan_b_peterson_u_of_t_professor/dzkahd2/?context=8&depth=9)

       Although that’s not always the case, because sometimes he says ridiculous stuff like, “Well all women on the pill are as if they’re not ovulating, so it’s possible that a lot of the antipathy that exists right now between women and men exists because of the birth control pill.” (from this interview http://www.c2cjournal.ca/2016/12/were-teaching-university-students-lies-an-interview-with-dr-jordan-peterson/) Again, death by a thousand cuts.

       Reply

       • Nice one, man. Thanks for taking the time to share all that. I can definitely see where you’re coming from now. Some very questionable stuff there.

         Biggest thing that has me taking him less seriously now is a quote from that last link you shared: “The idea that women were discriminated against across the course of history is appalling.”

         I’m beginning to understand the controversy.

         Reply