One of the links in my Trough of useful sources is to what used to be called Brain Pickings but has now been retitled The Marginalian. I receive regular emails with short essays on a whole range of subjects which often contain things that are very insightful.
Worldview
Navigating the Evolving Mechanisms for Maintaining Friendships
Well. that title is a bit of a mouthful. I have on many occasions within this blog talked about my thoughts regarding friends and friendships. In this post I Intend to consider how it is necessary to amend how those friendships are maintained both from the point of view of getting further through life and the perhaps more disruptive point of view of how technology has changed things.
A Worrying Epidemic of Intolerance of “Them”
This is certainly not a new topic within this blog although it has perhaps not been explicit for a while. I think the last time I waxed lyrical on Usandthemism was in this post. So many instances of this ‘disease’ crop up pretty much daily – and the problem is that most of the examples are far more complex and nuanced than most people are willing (or perhaps able) to perceive.
A Quote Affirming the Purpose of this Blog
I have – on many occasions – in these writings mentioned the cognitive bias that is termed “the Dunning Kruger Effect”. That stems from the results of some psychological based tests. Many have stated (perhaps with less research behind it) in alternative forms and I came across this one today from a philosopher.
(Im)Plausible Deniability
Given that the whole ethos of my blog here is that there is a lot we do not know and we should all be much more ready to accept that and be much more willing to say “I don’t know” you might well be surprised that this post is – in some ways – railing against folks who “don’t know”.
Truth vs Belief
I knew that when I published the previous post that I hadn’t really got to the end of the story and that more needed to be said around the subject of truth and facts and belief. Little did I know though that pretty much before the ink had dried on that post I would hear another extreme example of the issue from across the pond.
Does Truth Matter
Of course it does – I hear you all say. Of course, I agree. However there are some nuances to explore and – more specifically, some examples of where truth seems to have no place in the conversations. Strangely it is almost exactly a year (took so long to do this one that it is now 5 years!) since I wrote Face It – You Don’t Know which in some ways explored the same topic – but from a slightly different viewpoint.
Should Everyone Be Woke
Today I did something that I have never done before – I had a ‘conversation’ with Copilot. I’m not sure how often I would repeat this, but I did find it to be more illuminating than I expected.
Always Too Young To Know Everything
I’ve been prompted to write something on this subject by a couple of videos that popped up as recommended on my YouTube feed this week – although it is also in many ways following on from my previous post when it comes to being well informed and the Dunning-Kruger effect. The idea, of course, is fundamental to the purpose of this blog – i.e. to continue to learn and to constantly remind yourself that there is much yet to be known.
The (dis)Information Age
Much has already been written and said about the current state of US politics by people who are much wiser than me. Of course, probably much more has been written by others 😂. It is undoubtedly true that – for anyone – anything that threatens ‘their’ world view will be seen as ‘bad’ – that is, I think, an inbuilt knee-jerk response. For that reason, initial (and perhaps ill-considered) reactions are often not a good representation of ‘reality’ – and we will come to how much is ‘real’ in a moment.