Upon Reflection

Every year, many people receive antibiotics they don't need or they take them for longer than necessary. You might think this isn't a problem. After all, many antibiotics are cheap and have relatively mild side effects. But the more we use antibiotics, the more opportunities we create for bacteria to evolve immunity, making antibiotics so ineffective that otherwise common and treatable infections can become serious or even deadly — also known as antibiotic resistance. So who's responsible for making sure antibiotics are used only when necessary and only as long as necessary? In a short commentary in The American Journal of Bioethics, I argue that it is not just doctors that have duties to minimize and shorten antibiotic courses. If recent arguments are any indication, anyone who communicates about, studies, or reviews antibiotic decisions may have similar obligations. In this episode I'll lay out the argument and its implications for health systems. Byrd, N. (2026). The Patient and Pharmacy Sides of 'Shorter Is Better' Antibiotic Stewardship. The American Journal of Bioethics, 26(9), 132–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2026.2709547 As always, free preprints of my papers are available on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under "Publications". When selecting an affiliate partner for this episode, Homestyler reached out. But their website's products were missing too many details for me to feel comfortable. So instead I'll mention that I've been using PDF Expert for nearly a decade. Its interface is more attractive than Adobe products, and it usually costs less. In fact, I'm using PDF Expert to read this episode's commentary: You can find out more at readdle.8kpa2n.net/Byrd. You can find or tag me on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, or the legacy platforms if you want to engage more there. You can also send questions via the contact form on this website. I guess you could also do that in a podcast review. Related posts 25+ Cognitive Science Podcasts Do reflective people agree about ethics? Does Ethics Rest On A Mistake? Three Arguments That It Does

In late 2025, artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI automated the process of determining which model is best for a task. This allowed users to simply send their prompt and let the system determine whether to respond “fast" or "slow". In a 2022 paper, I suggested that this kind of strategic deployment of slow, more reflective reasoning could be crucial to good judgment and decision-making. Since then, I have been synthesizing the arguments and evidence for this view in a paper titled, "Strategic Reflectivism in Intelligent Systems". After the new paper was accepted in Lecture Notes In Computer Science, I recorded a podcast of me reading the final proofs of the paper. I review evidence suggesting that one key to intelligence in humans and machines is pragmatic switching between intuitive and reflective thinking based on the goals of the system. The paper has a wide range of implications for applied science, computer science, decision science, and epistemology. Byrd, N. (2025). Strategic Reflectivism In Intelligent Systems. Lecture Notes In Computer Science. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.22987 As always, free preprints of my papers are available on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under "Publications". This episode's affiliate partner is Road Runner Sports. For about a year I've been adding a weekly marathon to my exercise routine. So shoes, socks, headphones, shorts, and other fitness products have felt more important to me lately. What I like about Road Runner Sports is their integration of online and in-store retail; I can try things on in person, deliver to the store for free, return and exchange in person, etc. I am not stuck doing everything online. To meet your running needs, check out roadrunnersports.sjv.io/byrdnick. You can find the Upon Reflection podcast here or in your podcast app. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe wherever you find podcasts, follow on BlueSky at @ByrdNick.com, on Mastadon (@ByrdNick), and all the other platforms.  If you end up enjoying the Upon Reflection podcast, then feel free to tell people about it — online, in person, or in your review. Related posts The Bias Fallacy The Base Rate Fallacy The Appeal to Intuition: A Fallacy? Upon Reflection, Ep. 9: Bounded Reflectivism & Epistemic Identity 25+ Cognitive Science Podcasts

You may have heard me drone on and on about this thing called "reflective thinking". We philosophers and cognitive scientists are preoccupied with it. However, the term 'reflection' is sometimes used in different ways by scholars. To unify, make sense of, and guide our research, I synthesized a unified account from hundreds of years of English language, from philosophers, and from cognitive science. The result is this paper. In this episode, I'll read the paper, which explains the two key features of 'reflection' and how we measure them. This two-factor account of reflective thinking has implications for theories of rationality, self-knowledge, and dual-process theories. Byrd, N. (2025). A Two-Factor Explication of “Reflection”: Unifying, Making Sense of, and Guiding the Philosophy and Science of Reflective Reasoning. Res Philosophica, 102(3), 373–392. https://doi.org/10.5840/resphilosophica2711 As always, free preprints of my papers are available on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under "Publications". This episode's affiliate partner is Coursera. Coursera has something for everyone: students, teachers, schools, companies, and even governments. Find out how they can serve your education needs at Coursera.com/BYRD. You can find the Upon Reflection podcast here or in your podcast app. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe wherever you find podcasts, follow on BlueSky at @ByrdNick.com, on Mastadon (@ByrdNick), and all the other platforms.  If you end up enjoying the Upon Reflection podcast, then feel free to tell people about it, online, in person, or in your review. Related posts On Whether Reflection Is A Skill The Roles of Intuition & Reflection in Skill & Expertise On Whether Reflection Is A Virtue What good is reflective reasoning? What Is Reflective Reasoning?

You may have heard that atheists tend to score better on reflection tests than theists? But why do scientists find this "analytic atheism" correlation? Many studies have attempted to answer this question. Of course, even the best studies had limitations. So Steve Stich, Justin Sytsma, and I developed better methods and studied over 70,000 people on 6 continents. What did we find? Apostasy was key. Those who shed their religion since childhood were the most reflective. Lifelong atheists were not necessarily more reflective than theists. In other words, the analytic atheism correlation seems to be explained by analytic apostasy. In this episode, I'll explain the methods, results, and implications in our paper "Analytic Atheism & Analytic Apostasy Across Cultures" which will be published in Religious Studies. Byrd, N., Stich, S., & Sytsma, J. (2025). Analytic atheism and analytic apostasy across cultures. Religious Studies. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412525000198 As always, free preprints of my papers are available on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under "Publications". This episode's affiliate partner is PDF Expert. Since I bought PDF Expert in January 2016, it has been my primary reading and annotating app on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I often try the best free and paid competitors, but I keep coming back to PDF Expert. Find out why at readdle.8kpa2n.net/Byrd. You can find the Upon Reflection podcast here or in your podcast app. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe wherever you find podcasts, follow on BlueSky at @ByrdNick.com, on Mastadon (@ByrdNick), and all the other platforms.  If you end up enjoying the Upon Reflection podcast, then feel free to tell people about it, online, in person, or in your review. Related posts Upon Reflection, Ep. 10: Great Minds Do Not Think Alike Religiosity & Reflection Research Derek Leben's "When Psychology Undermines [Moral and Religious] Beliefs" The Meaning Problem & Academic Lexicons 8 Sources Of Morality

Suppose you glance at a clock that, unbeknownst to you, is broken, showing the same time all day. Nonetheless, you happened to look at the clock precisely when it showed the correct time. So your belief about the time is correct. My question is this: did you know what time it is? Perhaps you think that you did. After all, you formed a belief on the basis of a device that most people trust and the belief was true! What else would it mean to know something? Well, in academic philosophy, the orthodox answer to this kind of thought experiment is "no". People who perform better on tests of reflective thinking tend to report philosophers' orthodox answer to this kind of thought experiment. And, if you've been following my research, you know that philosophers are particularly reflective thinkers. These correlations may make you wonder about causation. Does thinking reflectively cause people to accept philosophers' orthodoxy? Or is it the other way around: does studying thought experiments like the broken clock case somehow result in people performing better on reflection tests? In this episode, I'll tell you about the experiment I ran to find out. The paper is titled "Reflection-Philosophy Order Effects and Correlations Across Samples" and has been accepted for publication in Analysis. The paper will also mention a bunch of other thought experiments, tests of reflective thinking, and measures of research participants' data quality. Byrd, N. (2025). Reflection-Philosophy Order Effects and Correlations Across Samples. Analysis. Preprint: 10.31234/osf.io/y8sdm. Open access article: 10.1093/analys/anaf015 As always, free preprints of my papers are available on my CV at byrdnick.com/cv under "Publications". This episode's affiliate partner is Spark Education, who is offering free 30-minute class demo for your child. You can read about the testimonials, stats, and all the activities included in their latest offer at SparkMath.pxf.io/PObNOR. You can find the Upon Reflection podcast here or in your podcast app. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe wherever you find podcasts, follow on BlueSky at @ByrdNick.com, on Mastadon (@ByrdNick), and all the other platforms.  If you end up enjoying the Upon Reflection podcast, then feel free to tell people about it, online, in person, or in your review. Related posts Upon Reflection, Ep. 10: Great Minds Do Not Think Alike Upon Reflection, Ep. 8: Reflective Reasoning & Philosophy Upon Reflection, Ep. 6: Your Health vs. My Liberty (COVID-19 Research Paper) Upon Reflection, Ep. 2: Not All Who Ponder Count Costs (Reflection & Moral Dilemmas) Oppenheimer: ‘Philosopher-Scientist-Statesman’