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Ugh, maybe I'm the only one but I don't find this list useful. Not because it isn't interesting, but the implication that it will actually make you smarter. The
by uola 10y ago
Ugh, maybe I'm the only one but I don't find this list useful. Not because it isn't interesting, but the implication that it will actually make you smarter. The problem today isn't information, it's knowledge. Even if you can correctly and fully understand all these models, something that could take years, you still most likely wouldn't be able to implement them, especially when they are in conflict with each other.
I think it's a much better idea to study things like critical thinking, practical reasoning and operational leadership. Back in the day hacker values stated that you could ask for directions, but not for the answer. Because the process itself was as important as the answer. Not just for amusement, but because there might not be a right answer and the next time you're confronted with a similar problem you now have some experience of making those decisions.
A great deal of "stupidity" in technology these days seem to stem from schools that promote check box answers to complex problems and the popularity of these "laws" that make people so sure of themselves that it prevents them from proper reasoning.
- adrusi 10y agoThis list is useful for people who are already used to thinking in these ways, intuitively, by being exposed to other people and learning by osmosis. Formalizing intuition leads to easy growth. For other people, you're right, it's about as useful as reading through a list of course descriptions rather than taking the actual courses.
- uola 10y ago"This list is useful for people who are already used to thinking in these ways, intuitively, by being exposed to other people and learning by osmosis. Formalizing intuition leads to easy growth." That's exactly what I'm questioning though, if that's the right way to learn things. Especially with the premise of the article, there's a risk that people are just "collecting facts" to be used as anecdotes to avoid reasoning. "For other people, you're right, it's about as useful as reading through a list of course descriptions rather than taking the actual courses." Somewhat ironic I read course curriculums all the time to figure out which subjects are covered and what are good beginner books.
- mwfunk 10y agoI think everything on this page is about encouraging reasoning rather than just collecting facts. If someone takes each one as a truism and blindly follows it, then yes, it would turn these mechanisms (which are supposed to help us identify and fight our own cognitive biases) into just another form of cognitive bias. That's why they're not laws, they're just handy patterns to help us reason about things that we see every day. I'm not sure what you mean by using them as tools to avoid reasoning- they are explicitly meant to help with reasoning. I don't know what sort of reasoning could be done without incorporating any sort of logical frameworks at all. That's all this stuff is, tools to aid reasoning by identifying common patterns and antipatterns in thoughts and perceptions about the world around us. Anyone who treats these ideas as absolute laws rather than occasionally (frequently) useful abstractions is doing it wrong.
- uola 10y ago"That's all this stuff is, tools to aid reasoning by identifying common patterns and antipatterns in thoughts and perceptions about the world around us." Identifying patterns is second to learning something. Logical fallacies are examples of bad arguments. You should first learn how to evaluate an argument [0] before trying to identify logical fallacies. Not only will you learn more, but there's a greater chance you will be able to put any given "model" in context. That people find things like logical fallacies useful is an indication that they don't understand the fundamentals. [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=critical+thinking+argument+evaluation https://www.google.com/search?q=critical+thinking+argument+e...