#796: L.A. Paul — On Becoming a Vampire, Whether or Not to Have Kids, Getting Incredible Mentorship for $250, Transformative Experiences, and More

Well, hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris Show, where it is my job to deconstruct and investigate world class performers in many different disciplines. My guest today is El A Paul. El A Paul is the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science at Yale University, where she leads the Self and Society initiative for the Wu Sai Institute. Her research explores questions about the nature of the self and decision making and the metaphysics and cognitive science of time. Cause an experience. Now that's a mouthful, but we also get into vampire thought experiments.

how to decide or how to think about deciding whether or not to have a kid. That is children, and many other things you can apply to your own. Lives. Elliot is also the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Centre, and the Australian National University. She is the author of Transformative Experience, that's how I was introduced to her work, and And co-author of Causation A User's Guide, which was awarded the Americos Association Sanders Book Prize. Her work on transformative experience has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, NPR, and the BBC, among others. And in twenty twenty four, she was profiled by The New Yorker, which is also an amazing read. that I recommend. She's currently working on a book about self-construction, transformative experience, humility, and fear of mental corruption. Fundamentally this conversation focuses on

how you can make decisions or think about making decisions where the person you are now is not the same person you are afterwards. And the most resonant example of that is deciding whether or not to have children. So Please enjoy a very wide ranging conversation with None other than LA.

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