Mimetic disease? If by that you include Bad Ideas, then yes, absolutely there are techniques for defending yourself against them. See things like Carl Sagan's B

Mimetic disease? If by that you include Bad Ideas, then yes, absolutely there are techniques for defending yourself against them. See things like Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World#Baloney_detection_kit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World#Balone... Or more generally, awareness of informal logical fallacies prepares you for spotting them in the wild (and they are everywhere). I'd also include texts such as Rudyard Kipling's If in the toolbox of defensive thinking, for its advocacy of balance and humility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If%E2%80%94 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If%E2%80%94 And pg's essay on small identity: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html And thought-terminating clichés: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A... None of these are guides to having good ideas as such, but can help avoid falling into the traps of bad ideas.