The only 12 proven self-help tools for a meaningful life and improving the world

There's an overwhelming amount of self-help advice out there, which makes it really hard to know what will work for you. But it turns out that over 450 self-help techniques from 100 books and 20 types of therapy actually boil down to just 12 tools.

In this episode, we talk with Spencer Greenberg, a mathematician and founder of the psychology research nonprofit Clearer Thinking. He recently co-authored the book The 12 Levers with clinical psychologist Jeremy Stevenson, to cut through the noise of self-help and provide people with the smallest number of concrete tools they can leverage in different situations.

We cover:

• How nearly 500 self-help techniques got narrowed down into 12 core psychological strategies, and how to use them.
• Why most people live by values they absorbed from their parents or environment rather than ones they actually chose, and how to figure out what your own values are.
• The real formula for productivity, which takes into account how important the work actually is.
• Why hopelessness is often less about the state of the world than about feeling unable to act, plus the single most evidence-backed exercise for building genuine optimism. 
• The exposure therapy techniques he used to overcome severe social anxiety.

Chapters:

0:00 Cold open

0:52 How 459 self-help techniques boil down to just 12 levers

2:36 Does self-help need to be evidence-based?

4:40 Why understanding yourself can change the world

5:42 Are you living on your values or someone else’s values?

7:11 How to figure out what you actually value

8:03 Pleasurable life vs meaningful life: what actually makes you fulfilled?

9:39 Redefining productivity: on the importance of the work vs hours and efficiency

11:46 Optimism vs hope, and training yourself to be more optimistic

15:21 Why Spencer wrote The 12 Levers, and how he beat his own social anxiety

18:14 Which levers are hardest to maintain and self development as an ongoing journey

20:01 Overwhelmed by 12 levers? Where to start

22:26 How to create meaning in your life through your values

26:26 Advice for young people who feel hopeless about the future

28:15 Designing an AI assistant that pushes you toward your values

31:39 What would it look like if everyone used the 12 levers?

32:56 When to accept things vs when to fight for change

36:55 Why your self-help knowledge might have blind spots

38:13 Spencer's existential hope vision for AI

38:48 The technology Spencer wants to see built

39:14 What Spencer would do instead of his current work

39:58 The best piece of advice Spencer ever received

On the Existential Hope Podcast hosts Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers from the Foresight Institute invite scientists, founders, and philosophers for in-depth conversations on positive, high-tech futures.

Full transcript, listed resources, and more: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts

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