Complicated thing is simply a large enough chain of simple things. Simple explanation is not simplification, or reduction. Simple explanation is one that leads one smoothly through each part of the chain. People who can’t explain simply don’t truly understand the subject. Their chain of understanding is incomplete. One can always collect …
Tag: Understanding
Self-Focused Learns Nothing Sees Nothing
Can you be looking at two things without dividing your attention? When you’re looking at an apple, can you simultaneously look at a pear, with the same attention? Or does your attention divide? What happens when you’re looking at yourself? You’re not looking at something else, are you? What happens when you …
The Curse Of Being Smart
The curse of being smart is that there are few to show you how stupid you are. Unintelligent people fail to perceive meaning and patterns. Intelligent people fail to perceive meaning and patterns.. The difference between an intelligent person and unintelligent is that intelligent person naturally perceives and understands more. However, being …
Do You Believe It Or Do You Want To Believe It?
Do you believe it? Or do you want to believe it? It’s a simple question, a simple idea – but we could all benefit from asking it more often. We want to believe many things. We want many things to be our way. We are petty and loud. We go about this world …
Look At The Intelligent
Our natural instinct is to look for ways to confirm our previous beliefs. It’s called confirmation bias. In fact it is not entirely useless. If we can find circumstances in which our beliefs are true – they practically become true. Pragmatically, your beliefs render you positive results. But for those of us concerned not …
Arrogance, Ignorance and KNOWING
What is arrogance? You think you’re right. That is why you do something. Who would like to be wrong? There is nothing to be gained in holding untrue beliefs, is there? No one consciously wants to be wrong. Everyone would rather be right. And when you think you’re right — obviously you won’t change your …
Clever Men, Clever Beliefs, Clever Nonsense
Stupid people have stupid beliefs. Clever people have clever beliefs. But it’s stupid all the same. …”clever” belief, “stupid” belief…it doesn’t matter. It’s all the same. Belief is a belief. It’s by definition stupid. It can be the most clever belief, but it’s still stupid. What is a belief? It’s a form of …
You Are Terribly Superstitious And You Don’t Even Know It
What is superstitiousness? You think it’s “seeing a black cat, thinking it’s a bad omen”. You think it’s stupid. It’s only as stupid as your own collection of cognitive biases. This one is called Post hoc ergo propter hoc. The Post hoc fallacy. Correlation does not imply causation. But you don’t realise it. You …
Anything Is Possible — And It Has Nothing To Do With Your “Dreams”
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS POSSIBLE. Not a clue. Wishful thinking or sceptical – you have no idea. You sceptics are not really sceptical. You should be sceptical about what you deem impossible. You should be more open to the UNBELIEVABLE POSSIBILITIES. We all underestimate what is possible. Dreaming, fantasising, wishful-thinking, …
Self-Improvement Is Mental Masturbation
Self-improvement is mental masturbation. You don’t really care about improving. You just want to feel good about yourself. “Motivation” is about feeling good about yourself. “Inspiration” is about feeling good about yourself. “Hustle” is about feeling good about yourself. Even “PLANS” are about feeling good about yourself. Oh and obviously resolutions are about …