Reading Time: < 1 minIt’s tempting to try to have the answer for every question, and it’s admittedly something I fall into myself. It’s kind of like the idea of “proving versus improving“, and trying to be an expert on everything. You don’t need to try to do that. It can take a degree of humility to know you […]
Learning
Proving versus improving
Reading Time: < 1 minThere are two types of people in the world: those that set out to prove their competence, and those that work to improve their competence. A great example was Donald Trump. He was clearly a smart enough man to get elected, but he very much focused on proving how smart he thought he was, rather […]
Remembering what I wrote
Reading Time: < 1 minA challenge with blogging every day is that it’s hard to remember everything that I’ve said. While the main goal is to help sharpen my thinking in broad strokes, remembering some of the details I share can be a useful thing and I’ve been finding it somewhat elusive. The issue is similar to my “who […]
Who is that person we had lunch with last month?
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve mentioned before that I’m a very dedicated user of the Anki app. It helps me learn and remember a lot of things, and it’s something I spent at least a bit of time with every day. Like most things, though, it’s only as good as the information that you put into it. I’m pretty […]
Procrastination can be productive
Reading Time: < 1 minProductivity and procrastination are often direct opposites, but they can sometimes go hand-in-hand. This isn’t to say you should be slow on purpose, but sometimes letting your mind wander can help you unpack big problems. That’s true for me on this blog. Some posts are written immediately after I have the idea, and then are […]
I am now less wrong than I was before
Reading Time: < 1 minBeing wrong about something often feels bad, but if you view it with the right lens it can be a great thing. I’ve mentioned Daniel Kahneman on here a few times, previously when he talked about using simple language when possible. I’ve also talked a good bit about Adam Grant, particularly in the past few […]
Were you dumb last year?
Reading Time: < 1 minIt was nearly a decade ago that I first shared the idea of “being right means you often change your mind“, but that statement implies something else — it means that before you changed your mind, you were wrong about that belief. Ray Dalio has a great Tweet from a few years ago that is […]
Consistency is the lamest of all human virtues
Reading Time: < 1 minConsistency isn’t always a bad thing. However, if your desire for consistency is larger than your desire to learn, you’re heading for a rough time. We see that a lot when it comes to politics (which sometimes, oddly, bleeds into science), but it can be relevant to many areas of our lives. Malcolm Gladwell and […]
Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself
Reading Time: 2 minSomething that I’ve realized I’m pretty bad about is repeating myself. It’s not that I do it too much, but rather that I don’t do it nearly enough. I first realized this years ago when I would teach 8th grade Bible Study at our church. I’d get the curriculum, go through it with the students, […]
Tell me about your research
Reading Time: 2 minI’m seeing more and more people claiming to have “done the research” to support some kind of claim, and I suspect most of the “research” there is rather dubious. In most cases, they’re simply saying “I believe the views of person x instead of person y” — and that’s mostly ok. If you trust one […]