58: Adam Mastroianni - Let Me Be Useful

Adam Mastroianni (Website, X) is an experimental psychologist and the writer of Experimental History. He earned his PhD in psychology at Harvard before leaving academia to pursue research and writing independently. I first came across Adam through “Good conversations have lots of doorknobs,” which remains one of my favorite essays on Substack. We talk about why psychology is stuck, why science needs people willing to look stupid, and how prestige can lead you toward a life you don’t want. From there, unpack Adam’s coffee bean test for figuring out what to do, getting “de-bogged,” and what improv teaches us about better conversations (or: create doorknobs). We also discuss writing that surprises its author, his upcoming book, The Strangest Idea in the World, and the prayer he says before publishing: “Let me be useful.” I hope you leave a little more willing to question what seems obvious, risk looking stupid, and spend your time in ways you actually enjoy. Transcript & links: https://dialectic.fm/adam-mastroianni --- Dialectic is presented by Notion. Notion is an AI-powered connected workspace where teams think together and create their best work. Notion AI works across your documents and context, while custom workers can automate recurring tasks and connect with your other tools. You can also explore Notion’s Knowledge Board, which evaluates how AI models perform on real knowledge-work tasks. Learn more at notion.com/dialectic. --- This episode is supported by Google. Google Antigravity is Google’s agentic development platform. Describe what you want to build, and its agents can plan the work, write and run code, and test the result, with plans and changes you can review along the way. Gemini 3.5 Transcribe turns audio into text with a choice of verbatim and Smart modes. Verbatim mode keeps fillers and false starts, and supports speaker labels and word-level timestamps to help you check the transcript against the recording. Smart mode removes filler words and repetitions and formats speech into readable text. I used Antigravity and Gemini 3.5 Transcribe to build a Mac app for producing and reviewing Dialectic transcripts. --- Timestamps: 04:33 Start: Why Psychology is Stuck & The Focus of Adam's Blog 14:43 The Scientific Virtues of Stupidity and Rebellion & Escaping the Prestige Trap 25:08 Patronage for Weirdos 33:53 Progress in Psychology 52:15 Figuring Out What to Do, The Coffee Bean Test, and Unpacking Adam's Day-to-Day 01:03:22 Getting De-bogged and Making Ideas Land 01:14:11 Conversational Doorknobs: Giving and Taking 01:22:23 Blogging, Community, and Rules we Invent 01:28:35 Writing Advice, Thick Art, Giving The Reader an Egg to Crack 01:44:03 Adam's First Book: The Strangest Idea in the World 01:53:23 Closing Questions