Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the ….

Even the charities I give to are related to things that touch my life, like the Special Olympics. I'm not fully rational; I'm swayed by my biases and….

We don't just respond to things as we see them, or feel them, or hear them. Rather, our response is conditioned on our beliefs, about what they reall….

I'm really interested in the pleasure we get from stories and the pleasure we get from movies, and certainly the pleasure we get from virtual experie….

I love teaching. I wouldn't take a job that didn't include it..

What I mean by "empathy" is putting yourself in other people's shoes, feeling what they feel..

I kind of like social media, and I like hearing from people. I don't like the ugly stuff, but there are some people - smart people - who have a very ….

My younger son told me nobody uses email anymore. I'm this old fogie with my email. I don't know what I'm supposed to communicate with now - SnapChat?.

Families survive the terrible twos because toddlers aren't strong enough to kill with their hands and aren't capable of using lethal weapons..

It has been a period where people have been far nicer to one another in every possible way. I'm not saying it's because we're dropping our empathy th….

When you start writing things to try to persuade someone who's not already part of your guild or your profession that something is interesting, it fo….

I have huge admiration for people who think like the effective altruist, who try to rationally think about how they can change the world for the bett….

When I write I'll sometimes say things which are somewhat controversial - not because I'm seeking out controversy for its own sake, but if I don't ha….

Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it's narrow, it's innumerate, it's racist, it's very biased..

Because of empathy, stories of the suffering of one person could lead us into a war that could kill millions of people..

I'm not a pacifist. I think the suffering of innocent people can be a catalyst for moral action. But empathy puts too much weight on the scale in fav….

I am never going to write about dogs again. You can write about Islam, you can write about sexuality, but no, not dogs..

Some people think that without that spark of empathy we would do nothing, but that's just flat-out wrong. You could feel compassion for somebody with….

When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy. When Obama wanted to bomb Syria, he drew our attenti….

In my own life, I do not live like an effective altruist. An effective altruist would really disapprove of my life. I don't give enough to charity an….

I have two teenage sons, and they're both surviving, thriving, and having a great time, and they're always on social media..