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How memory and learning work, why minds take shortcuts, and how to reason and argue well, from the research and the thinkers behind it. Notes to understand, and to put to work in what you learn next.
14 notes from Graphite. Free to read, with no account. Nothing here is for sale.
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The note that answers the topic’s biggest question, then the two it leads to most directly.
Start here
Philosophy is the careful, reasoned study of basic questions that experiments alone can't settle, about knowledge, right and wrong, reality and reasoning. Its branches, and how to read an argument.
Graphite7 min read
Then
The Dunning-Kruger effect is the finding that people who do worst at a task tend to overestimate how well they did. What the 1999 study found, the chart it never drew, and the statistical doubts.
Graphite6 min read
And then
Nihilism is the view that life has no built-in meaning, that morality has no objective basis, or that nothing can be known. The kinds, what Nietzsche really said, and the main replies.
Graphite6 min read
Every note
The three above, then the rest. Each answers one question and links to the notes it leads to.
Occam's razor is the rule that among explanations that fit the facts equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions is usually the best bet. Where it came from, how to use it, and when it fails.
Graphite6 min read
Stoicism is a Greek and Roman philosophy that says virtue is the only real good and that distress comes from judgments, not events. Its ideas, its four great teachers, and its practices.
Graphite7 min read
A polymath is a person with deep, working knowledge of several unrelated fields. Who the famous ones were, why they grew rarer, and what research on expertise says about breadth.
Graphite6 min read
The allegory of the cave is Plato's story of prisoners who mistake shadows for reality, from Book VII of the Republic. The story step by step, what it means, and what it doesn't.
Graphite6 min read
The Monty Hall problem is a game-show puzzle with three doors. Switching wins two times in three, not half the time. Three ways to see why, and the rules the answer depends on.
Graphite6 min read
The Ship of Theseus asks whether a ship whose every plank is replaced is still the same ship. Plutarch's version, Hobbes's twist, the main answers, and what it means for people.
Graphite6 min read
Survivorship bias is drawing conclusions from the cases that made it through a filter while forgetting the ones that didn't. Wald's bombers, told accurately, and how to spot it.
Graphite6 min read
The Pomodoro Technique is a time-management method of 25 minutes of focused work, a short break, and a longer break every four rounds. How it works, why it helps, and its limits.
Graphite6 min read
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort of holding beliefs or actions that clash, and the urge to ease it, often by changing a belief. Festinger's theory, its experiments, and their limits.
Graphite6 min read
Critical thinking is judging a claim by its evidence and reasoning before you accept it. A four-question toolkit, a worked example, and the common fallacies and biases to watch for.
Graphite6 min read
Spaced repetition is reviewing material at growing intervals instead of cramming, so each review comes as memory starts to fade. Why it works, the research, and how to schedule it.
Graphite6 min read
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