The Risk of Excessive Caution
"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." – Lao Tzu My biology teacher used to joke, "A pessimist is a man...
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How can we make better decisions?
hbsingh
Survive bs everywhere
Bs is everywhere. We know what it is when we see it, but how do we define it, spot it and avoid it? Today's blogs takes the smelly tour...
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Did the policy work?
"The plural of anecdote is misinformation" - Dr. Jonathan Stea Did a policy work? Voters are in the mood for radical policies. Radical...
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Agree to Disagree
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it means to sit down and listen” - often misattributed to Churchill...
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Competing narratives
"Narratives are the primary way in which we make sense of our lives" - Jacqui Stedmon What are narratives? In most situations there is...
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Radical Centrism explained
There was recently a survey from a right wing magazine which stated that the bottom quarter of the US had the same or worse outcomes to...
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The 5Ds of national decline
"We can neither endure our vices nor their remedies." - Livy about the Roman Empire Whether it is riots, strikes or feelings of...
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Popular does not equal good
Today's short blog is on a subject that seems so obvious, but we often fall into logical fallacies around it. Popular does not equal...
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What is the "far right"?
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - Evelyn Beatrice Hall Increasingly we are hearing of...
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What is democracy good for?
'It has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried' - Winston...
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Why you should vote
"Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world."- Sharon Salzberg This year 2024, has...
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Public square 2.0
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." What would a modern public square look like?...
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Democracy and the public square
"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people." - John Adams Imagine the cacophony of information that is...
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Thinking charitably
Why hadn’t I heard of the concept of "charity" in critical thinking?.... maybe because it’s a lost art. Have you come across the idea in...
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Why tech chose misinformation
"The challenge is that the internet has created a place where misinformation just flourishes. We have to think about these systems more...
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Free speech and its limits
Free speech has its limits. We need to work out what they should be. Freedom of speech is venerated by us as an essential right within a...
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Critical thinking - explained
Our public square is broken. For the first time since records began, more Americans say they have no trust in the mainstream media than...
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How do you switch off?
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you." - Anne Lamont There are at least two problems with...
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10 insights from 100 blogs
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself." – adapted quote from Mahatma Gandhi Dear readers, welcome to my 100th blog. A huge...
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13 questions whilst you read
"The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you." – W. Somerset Maugham I was probably the anti-example (if that...
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Short book recommendations
I seek out short books to read. Short books might lack the snob-value that War and Peace or the Count of Montecristo has but these short...
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Different ways to read a book
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”― Lemony Snicket. You can only read a book front to back, right? Wrong....
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Why read books?
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” ― René Descartes The average time an...
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Step by Step mentoring
“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” — Whoopi...
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The model mentee
“Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson I was a lousy mentee. A really lousy mentee...
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Why mentor?
"Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction" - John C. Crosby I used to enjoy a podcast called...
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Non-consensus investing
If there is one thing you take away from today's blog, it should be that to beat the market you need to understand the consensus and then...
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Risk Management 101
Last week's blog on second order thinking was an introduction into how people beat the market. This week we are covering risk management...
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Second order thinking
Dear readers, I am so excited to be starting 2024 with you and hope we have some great discussions. Today's blog (#90) is relevant for...
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2024 topics
“I feel I change my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that's your responsibility as a person, as a human being – to constantly be...
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2023 - the review
Thank you. Thank you to all readers of the blog. Your comments, questions and follow-on discussions on the topics have been amazing and...
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Why we make investment mistakes
Ray Dalio: "The biggest mistake investors make is to believe that what happened in the recent past is likely to persist." John Templeton:...
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Why beginner investors are lucky
“Investing is a funny business. It's really easy to be average. Just buy an index fund. It's really hard to be above average.”- Howard...
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Why are investment decisions important?
'Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.' - Daniel Kahneman Welcome to blog 85, which will be the...
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Protecting yourself from propaganda
Welcome to today's blog (number 84!). My sources are some of the smartest people I know and have distilled the tactics many people use. I...
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Digital Propaganda
"When people talk about fake news, a lot of folks are like 'people will figure it out.' The truth is, they don't always figure it out." -...
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Propaganda 101
“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” Robert Heinlein, Revolt in...
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Learning is testing
“Don’t confuse recognising information with being able to recall it.” - Adam Robinson This is the final installment of the learning...
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Beware of clever fools
“Cleverness is not wisdom.” - Euripides This short blog (#80!!) is an important one if you are keen to weed out pretenders and avoid...
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Revision tips 1: Learning is training
“Learn from the mistakes of others … You can't live long enough to make them all yourself!” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Over the last 8 weeks...
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Neurodiversity - different ways of learning
“You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.” - Marvin Minsky Much of what I have written about is targeted at...
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What do we really mean by learning?
“If you think education is expensive, try estimating the cost of ignorance.”- Howard Gardner Over the last couple of weeks, we have gone...
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How to remember long term?
“Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.” - Bob Dylan I hope you love this one! I have enjoyed researching it. So far...
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Making things memorable
“Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved.” - Thomas Fuller So far in the series we...
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How to learn intensely
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically” - Martin Luther King, Jr. In this series, we are...
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Creating curiosity
“Genuine learning is impossible without curiosity.” – Naval Ravikant For Blog 73, we are tackling a thorny issue around learning....
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The 5 steps of learning
'I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand ' - Confucius Your brain works like Google - a cue can access memories...
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Why do we learn?
“A man who asks, is a fool for five minutes. A man who never asks is a fool for life.” - Chinese Proverb I find learning a fascinating...
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Test your EQ!
“In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels” ― Daniel Goleman Welcome to Blog 70! It is all about EQ and...
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3 beach books and half time commentary
"In the game of life, nothing is less important than the score at halftime." - Andy Andrews As I sign off for the first half of the year...
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