How to Evaluate Advice Before You Follow It
Before following advice, check its hidden assumptions, evidence, downside and fit. Use five questions and a worked example to test a confident-sounding rule.
The reading collection
Psychology, geopolitics, philosophy—and everything in between.
60 readings · 1–12
Before following advice, check its hidden assumptions, evidence, downside and fit. Use five questions and a worked example to test a confident-sounding rule.
From The End of Wisdom - a book about why most advice is bullsh*t. This week, the chapter it opens with.The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Both are proverbs, both are…
10% Happier is a book about Dan Harris and his discovery of [meditation](https://www.amazon.
Thinking: Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is about the ways in which our automatic patterns of thought can mislead us.
The proverb “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” represents one of humanity’s most enduring observations about the paradoxical nature of human action and consequence.
“Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.” – Lao Tzu. In a world obsessed with optimization, productivity, and relentless self-improvement, Lao Tzu’s ancient wisdom about the path to serenity strikes…
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World* by David Epstein argues that instead of aiming to hyper specialize, more people should be trying to gain multi-disciplinary experience. Instead of planning and…
In Risk Savvy*, Gigerenzer makes the contrarian case that the world doesn’t need more experts, more number crunching, more big data, but rather, a better education about the nature of risk. He contrasts risk with…
Why is Stoicism suddenly mainstream? I wouldn’t have imagined that in 2018, ancient philosophies would become more relevant. I decided to put some books on Stoicism on my reading list. to see what the hype was about.…
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson is not about giving no fucks about anything, it’s about choosing the few things to give a fuck about. A funny book with sharp insights worth remembering.
In our modern world, boredom has become something of an endangered experience. We reach for our phones at the slightest lull in activity, scroll through social media while waiting in line, and fill every…
Antifragile is about how we should measure risk.