Into The Impossible

Get 3 months off the annual plan and start learning faster at shortform.com/impossible In this episode, Steven Pinker unpacks how common knowledge shapes everything from why rational people can’t agree to disagree to why markets boom and bust. We explore the risks of falsifying expert claims, the power of social norms, and whether civilization is held together by truths—or by the fictions we all agree to share. — Key Takeaways:  00:00 Intro  00:58 When common knowledge is wrong 02:37 The role of common knowledge in social coordination  08:48 Free will and determinism  14:48 Judging a book by its cover 21:08 Government suppression and common knowledge 30:08 The agree to disagree theorem  34:54 Generosity and charity in human affairs 41:12 The role of common knowledge in religious beliefs  48:31 LLMs and common knowledge  50:39 Outro Additional resources: