Our First Anniversary
Links to all the material published on Sharpen Your Axe so far
"Axe Sharpening_8328" by Sterling College is licensed under CC BY 2.0
It is nearly one year since the first regular post on Sharpen Your Axe! I would like to begin this week’s newsletter by thanking all the people who have subscribed to it, who read it, who follow the links, who give me feedback and who share it on social media. I appreciate you all! I would particularly like to thank Javier for helping me understand the basics of marketing a little better.
This week’s column will link back to all the material on critical thinking we have provided so far, dividing it into a few categories to make it easier to explore the back catalogue. Normal service will be resumed next week. See you then!
Fundamental issues
What can ancient philosophers teach us about dodgy social media narratives? Suspend judgement
Learn about the theory that is taking over the world - a probabalistic approach
What is the essence of real research? Connect your beliefs to the real world
A hard-won lesson from a career in international media - check everything
Gambling can be good for you - test your beliefs
The secret sauce to make the ideas above work - intellectual integrity
It might sound geeky, but it will give you good results -think about your methodology
A business theorist developed a deep idea about overcoming mistakes - double-loop learning
Sometimes we think everybody is wrong. This can be dangerous but it can also yield good results if you do it right. Follow this guide to contrarianism.
Conspiracy theorists get at least one thing right. What is it?
Social media
There are easy ways to make your social media experience better - hack your feed and control the input
One of your friends is talking absolute rubbish on social media. You want to get into a big debate, but you know from bitter experience this will give you bad results. Learn how to do it better
Social media makes it easy to form a mob. Please put down your pitchfork
“How dare you think that?” How to avoid taking offence
Startup founders have developed an excellent, but scary, way of developing an audience - build in public
The news
You are probably consuming the news in a way that is bad for you - why you should read several news sources
If someone talks about “the lamestream media,” it should be a red flag to you. In defence of the mainstream media
Some of the conventions of the news business are too old-fashioned - improve the news
Current affairs and health
Recent events can help us test the assumptions behind conspiracy theories - lessons from Afghanistan
Was COVID developed in a lab? This is a surprisingly difficult question!
Learn an important lesson that will help you understand health news - toxicology
Politics
I have been attacked by a bot army and I survived to tell the tale - fact-checking as a political act
“You are biased!” Well, yes
The division between left and right isn’t as important as the difference between freedom and authoritarianism - the open society
Why do politicians seem disconnected from ordinary life or dangerous? Two games of politics
The biggest secret of democratic politics - how private investment acts as a constraint on policy
The most popular post yet - is Spain a fascist state?
A serious mistake - bad analysis drove Brexit
We can do better - moderation, centrism and pragmatism
Finance and business
The world is changing fast - massive amounts of data
“Buy this product and you might never have to work again.” The dangers of crypto fraud
The core lesson from finance - understanding compound interest
The core lesson from the world of startups - understanding exponential growth
Housekeeping
My present to you - the beta version of the Sharpen Your Axe book
Who, what, why? An introduction to the project
The seed of the project - a life-changing book on conspiracy theories
Getting it wrong
I have bad news for you about your ideology - all models are wrong but some models are useful
We are all irrational - motivated reasoning
What will you find at the bottom of an internet rabbit-hole? Groupthink
“Is everything a conspiracy?” The conspiratorial mindset
“I am going to storm the Capitol with my QAnon brothers!” Conspiracy theories can be bad for your health
Why do some people get drawn into conspiracy theories and dogmatic worldviews? The dark power of utter certainty
Why we all hate being contradicted - even you, even me!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but… your first guess will be wrong
Have you ever noticed that conspiracy theorists tend to be very inflexible about other issues too? The reason is simple - conspiracy theories act as bodyguards to bad ideas
Poor reseach and how to avoid it - Chinese whispers and the dangers of working backwards
Start with a narrative and then look for examples - cherry picking
How to recognize three groups of people who spread dodgy conspiracy theorists - anti-globalists; con artists; and denialists
Sharpen Your Axe is a project to develop a community who want to think critically about the media, conspiracy theories and current affairs without getting conned by gurus selling fringe views. Please subscribe to get this content in your inbox every week. Shares on social media are appreciated! If this is the first post you have seen, I recommend starting with the critical-thinking rabbit hole, which includes links to a free book.
[Updated on 10 March 2022] Opinions expressed on Substack and Twitter are those of Rupert Cocke as an individual and do not reflect the opinions or views of the organization where he works or its subsidiaries.