Critical Fallibilism

Introduction to Critical Fallibilism

Learn about a new thinking method that uses binary evaluations and breakpoints.

Research

Organized Writing Based on a Tree

How do you make writing organized and easy to understand? There are many options. A standard approach is to make the writing correspond well to a tree diagram. (I'll talk primarily about essay writing, but the same techniques work with longer or shorter pieces. Just make every part

Research

Treating Ideas Badly

People encounter ideas, think they are bad ideas, and then want to treat those ideas badly because they're (allegedly) bad. They want their treatment of ideas to correspond to the nature or quality of the ideas. They want to be interested in good ideas, and uninterested in bad

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Rationality Is Counter-Intuitive

Rationality requires some attention be allocated contrary to what most people find draws their attention. If different creators each independently try to draw attention, that isn't a truth-seeking process. Getting popularity or attention are different things than having correct ideas. For a rational world, some people will have

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Write How You Speak

Some people want to do philosophy but will barely talk on a philosophy forum because it takes them a lot of time and effort to write anything. They also don’t do enough private writing – notes, journaling, written brainstorming, written pro/con lists, essays, tree diagrams, etc. (Other quiet people

Research

A Succession of Practice Activities

There are many ways to view learning philosophy and making unbounded progress. A Popperian view is it's problem solving. You solve one problem then move on to another (that's better in some way), and keep going forever. Popper saw progress as progressing from problem to problem.

Shorts

Philosophy as a Secondary Skill

Philosophy can be done by itself (primary) or to support other activities (secondary). It can help you do better problem solving and learning regarding any topic. So you can pursue philosophy as a means to other ends, or as an end in itself. (There are many types of philosophy; I&

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What Nodes Go In Debate Trees? And Other Debate Tree Questions

This article answers several common questions about debate trees. It discusses mechanics of how trees work, addressing all criticism instead of excluding arguments from discussions, and how to protect your time. Adding Nodes When making debate trees, what nodes should be added? (Suppose you're the one with the

Research

Learning Many Small Skills Instead of Getting Stuck

I see people get stuck while trying to learn philosophy. I'll tell you what they don't do: incrementally learn a dozen different small skills, of multiple types, successfully, with some skills building on previous skills, and practice each skill. You might think "Of course they

Research

To Make Unbounded Progress, Do Similar Activities to Past Successes

I see people overreach and do overly difficult activities even after reading my essays about overreaching and claiming that they agree with me. Then they may fail a bunch, get stuck, and give up without ever trying easy enough activities. Why do they do this? Perhaps they don't

Shorts

Do You Like Learning Philosophy?

Do you like learning philosophy? Or do you just want to be a good philosopher? Do you just want the results you imagine getting from philosophy, such as winning more arguments, having innovative ideas, having more of your solutions to problems actually work, impressing people with your cleverness, being rational,

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Arguing Without Discussing Opposing Arguments

I read A serious case for dynamic scoring, an essay discussing how the U.S. government inaccurately scores the budget impact of potential laws by ignoring complex, dynamic factors like how a law could increase economic growth. Proposals to bring in more high-skilled immigrants are calculated as costly because the

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Substantive Learning Processes

Some changes require a substantive learning process, such as hours of intentional, focused practice. There are other options too, like reading several books over the course of a few months and thinking about it many times during those months. Or you can immerse yourself in a subculture, for months, that&

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Science Needs Rational Debate

I wrote Objective Judgment, Chess Competition and How Science Is Failing. Here are some further comments on those issues. Skill at winning chess games is skill at chess. To a good approximation, there's just one thing, not two separate things. By contrast, skill at doing scientific research is

Research

Objective Judgment, Chess Competition and How Science Is Failing

Summary: I discuss how the impact of bias is limited in chess competition. Then I discuss how bias is a bigger factor in philosophy and science. Then I discuss what chess is doing better and propose a solution for philosophy and science. Bias in Chess There is bias in the

Shorts

Mold-Finding Dog Training and Induction

I read an account of training a dog to find hidden mold problems in buildings. (It’s in Mold Controlled by John Banta.) Dogs have a better sense of smell than us, so they can sniff for mold effectively. In short, if you want an exceptionally skilled dog, it takes

Shorts

Losing Track of Discussions

In philosophy discussions, people routinely lose track of the discussion. They forget or become confused about who said what, what replies to each statement were made, what replies to replies were made, what was left unanswered, and what the current evaluation (given the statements so far) of the conclusion is

Shorts

Intentional, Focused Practice

An especially effective method of learning is intentional, focused practice. Intentional means you’re consciously, explicitly trying to learn. You have a goal to learn something. You’re trying to learn on purpose. Focused means you’re trying to learn only a couple things at once. Limiting what you learn

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Investigating Unstable Intuitions

I’ve discussed a technique for investigating your subconscious intuitions. A main way you know about intuitions is they like some things and dislike others (and have no opinion on others). Even if they won’t explain themselves in words, they express opinions – that’s a main way that you

Shorts

Todo Lists and Self-Coercion

A todo list is an organizational tool, not a motivational tool. It’s a memory aid, not a way to persuade yourself about what to do. You should put tasks on your todo list that you want to do. If you include tasks that you don’t want to do,

Shorts

Todo Lists Delegate Work Away From Your Conscious Mind

Critical Fallibilism advocates delegating work from your conscious mind to your subconscious. This takes mental load off your conscious mind, which frees up attention for other things, including creating more advanced knowledge. Your subconscious isn’t the only place you can delegate mental work to. Todo lists also reduce the

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Terminology Clarification Regarding the “Subconscious”

I’m enjoying reading Why I Left Orthodox Medicine: Healing for the 21st Century by Derrick Lonsdale. I noticed that he uses the word “subconscious” differently than I do. I wanted to clarify my terminology in case anyone is confused. In Critical Fallibilism (CF) essays, “subconscious” refers to the part

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Peer Review Is Worse than the Internet

The internet can be really smart and effective sometimes. We’ve seen examples where impressive things have been figured out by people on internet platforms like Reddit, Facebook, TikTok or 4chan. In the Netflix documentary Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, a Facebook group helps

Shorts

Peer Review and Appeals to Authority

Suppose you write a blog post arguing a point. Some readers will reply (or, worse, think it without saying it): “If that was true, you would get it published in a peer reviewed journal. If you don’t do that, it’s because you’re wrong.” The assumption here is

Shorts

Peer Review Does Private, Elite Gatekeeping

Peer review prevents some ideas from being published. That’s a significant part of the point. What is published is supposed to already be filtered or gatekept to only be high quality ideas. So the public doesn’t even get to see most ideas. A small group of people have