Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2025-03-13
Books mentioned on Part Two: The Zizians: Birth of a Cult Leader
Robert tells David Gborie about the early life of Ziz LaSota, a bright young girl from Alaska who came to the Bay Area with dreams of saving the cosmos or destroying it, all based on her obsession with Rationalist blogs and fanfic. See omnystudio.
Robert Evans discussed Worm by Jill Bailey, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky, Inadequate Equilibria by Eliezer Yudkowsky, and History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Complete and Unabridged by Edward Gibbon.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Worm
Worm by Jill Bailey is a piece of online speculative fiction and web serial writing that has achieved widespread popularity within rationalist communities.
Discussed“as best as I think anyone can tell if you're curious about where the name ziz came from there's another piece of Serial relased online fiction that's not like a rationalist story but it's very popular with rationalists it's called worm”
Where to get it
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky is a massive, widely read piece of fan fiction that reimagines the original wizarding universe through the lens of scientific rationality and critical thinking.
Discussed“um she starts reading around this time when she's in college Harry Potter and the methods of rationality This helps to solidify her feelings of her own centrality as a hero figure”
Where to get it
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Inadequate Equilibria
Inadequate Equilibria by Eliezer Yudkowsky is an online book exploring game theory, societal traps, and the reasons why civilizations often remain stuck in suboptimal states.
Discussed“and 2014 she attends a lecture by Alicia yid Kowski on the subject of inadequate equilibria which is the title of a book that yid Kowski had wrote about the time and the book is about where and how civilizations get stuck”
Where to get it
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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Complete and Unabridged
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Complete and Unabridged is a sweeping historical work by Edward Gibbon chronicling the trajectory of the Roman civilization.
Discussed“I mean [ __ ] man the the first and most his like one of the first influential works of his modern scholarship is the decline and fall of the Roman Empire It's a whole book about why a society fell apart”
Where to get it
