Can anybody please help me narrow this into a narrower question? What are some of the real world concepts we need to get a handle on in order to read or learn with intelligence......
July 13, 2006 2:21 PM Subscribe
Can anybody please help me narrow this into a narrower question? What are some of the real world concepts we need to get a handle on in order to read or learn with intelligence......
(e.g necessary versus sufficient, as in "these conditions are necessary but not sufficient")
There is a lot of noise out there. It would be good if we have a mental checklist to categorize information we come across.
If you like , it would be a list about the myths or the confusion we fall into in thinking about something.
The list will probably include concepts such as :
1. necessary versus sufficient, as in "these conditions are necessary but not sufficient" .
2. movement does not mean motion, e.g. "Just because you are busy doing something does not mean you are busy living a life worth dying for."
3. correlation does not equate causation.
4. The medium may or may not be the message. e.g. Marshall McLuhan , according to Peter Drucker in "Adventures of a Bystander" page 250, claimed that "printing .... determined what henceforth was going to be considered knowledge." Peter Drucker thought McLuhan was crazy, until television as a medium arrived. The medium "changes man and his personality and what man is ---- or perceives himself to be --- just as much as it changes what he can do."
I am NOT looking for a list of fallacies in arguments .
Can you think of anything else?
If you think this question is too broad, then please help me narrow it.
Thanks a million.
(e.g necessary versus sufficient, as in "these conditions are necessary but not sufficient")
There is a lot of noise out there. It would be good if we have a mental checklist to categorize information we come across.
If you like , it would be a list about the myths or the confusion we fall into in thinking about something.
The list will probably include concepts such as :
1. necessary versus sufficient, as in "these conditions are necessary but not sufficient" .
2. movement does not mean motion, e.g. "Just because you are busy doing something does not mean you are busy living a life worth dying for."
3. correlation does not equate causation.
4. The medium may or may not be the message. e.g. Marshall McLuhan , according to Peter Drucker in "Adventures of a Bystander" page 250, claimed that "printing .... determined what henceforth was going to be considered knowledge." Peter Drucker thought McLuhan was crazy, until television as a medium arrived. The medium "changes man and his personality and what man is ---- or perceives himself to be --- just as much as it changes what he can do."
I am NOT looking for a list of fallacies in arguments .
Can you think of anything else?
If you think this question is too broad, then please help me narrow it.
Thanks a million.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is still way too open-ended, you may have misunderstood the last reason for deletion.
I'm also not sure what you are asking but perhaps this list of Cognitive Biases might be helpful.
posted by vacapinta at 2:41 PM on July 13, 2006
posted by vacapinta at 2:41 PM on July 13, 2006
Obviously, if you're trying to learn about a specific subject, background in it's basic concepts helps.
But in general, History has been most helpful to me. I'm not a historian by a long shot, but I love history and read many fiction and non-fiction books about other times. This continually helps me put current events, trends and discoveries into perspective. If you know some history, you're continually amazed when you hear people claiming that some present-day thing is unique. 90% of the time it's not.
For instance, all this hullabaloo about copying media... Back when Gilbert and Sullivan were hot, people used to sit in the audience and transcribe the music. They would then sell these illegal copies on the street. They sold well, because back then, most well-to-do families had pianos and a family-member who could play.
For me, the most helpful tools have been:
-- World History, Art History, History of Literature
-- Logic
-- Rhetoric (because I read a lot of Shakespeare)
-- Writing Techniques stuff (e.g. Strunk and White), which helps you learn to express yourself and your ideas clearly -- and thus helps you clarify your ideas
-- Computer programming. This has helped me immensely, in may ways besides allowing me to program computers. Programming forces you -- within a practical framework -- to think logically, clearly and to organize. People might let you get away with fuzzy communication, but computers are ruthless. You MUST be clear. The better I get at programming, the better I get at thinking and communicating.
-- Psychology / Cognitive science
-- Philosophy
posted by grumblebee at 2:43 PM on July 13, 2006
But in general, History has been most helpful to me. I'm not a historian by a long shot, but I love history and read many fiction and non-fiction books about other times. This continually helps me put current events, trends and discoveries into perspective. If you know some history, you're continually amazed when you hear people claiming that some present-day thing is unique. 90% of the time it's not.
For instance, all this hullabaloo about copying media... Back when Gilbert and Sullivan were hot, people used to sit in the audience and transcribe the music. They would then sell these illegal copies on the street. They sold well, because back then, most well-to-do families had pianos and a family-member who could play.
For me, the most helpful tools have been:
-- World History, Art History, History of Literature
-- Logic
-- Rhetoric (because I read a lot of Shakespeare)
-- Writing Techniques stuff (e.g. Strunk and White), which helps you learn to express yourself and your ideas clearly -- and thus helps you clarify your ideas
-- Computer programming. This has helped me immensely, in may ways besides allowing me to program computers. Programming forces you -- within a practical framework -- to think logically, clearly and to organize. People might let you get away with fuzzy communication, but computers are ruthless. You MUST be clear. The better I get at programming, the better I get at thinking and communicating.
-- Psychology / Cognitive science
-- Philosophy
posted by grumblebee at 2:43 PM on July 13, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by LimePi at 2:28 PM on July 13, 2006