
Infinite Loops Adam Mastroianni - Why Creativity Feels Like It's Dying (Ep. 306)
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Mar 19, 2026 Adam Mastroianni, experimental psychologist and cultural critic, explores why creativity feels like it is fading. He discusses rising cultural sameness, the decline of deviant risk-taking, and how prosperity and the internet reshape innovation. He proposes small, rule-light institutions like 'science houses' and practical ways for outsiders to do and replicate science.
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Internet Amplifies And Dampens Cultural Variants
- The internet both fragments audiences and flattens cultural inputs, producing tailored niches yet shared mainstream touchpoints that homogenize outputs.
- Adam notes everyone now knows big stars like Taylor Swift, reducing isolated regional cultures.
Create Science Houses To Train Weird Science
- Build small, non‑institutional science houses where apprentices learn by doing outside PhD incentives.
- Adam ran a prototype: residents publish directly online, avoid journal/tenure incentives, and train new research cultures.
Start Doing Science Today With Replication And Virtues
- To start practicing science outside academia, read the Slime Mold Time Mold piece on scientific virtues and adopt virtues like stupidity, humor, and rebellion.
- Then replicate an existing empirical project and post results online to join the community.





