Sharpen Your Axe!

Thinking critically about the news and conspiracy theories

"Axe sharpening" by jwolson is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I am pleased to announce an exciting new project: Sharpen Your Axe. I plan to launch a free online book, which will contain a series of tools to help ordinary people think critically about the news and conspiracy theories. These tools are fairly commonplace in journalism, game theory, statistics, philosophy and psychology, but are rarely found together or presented to the general public. They should help you discern which information is credible and which isn’t as you cruise the internet and check your social media feeds.

I began the book in 2016 when I noticed a number of friends going down strange rabbit holes on the internet. They were well-intentioned, but sadly nobody had ever taught them any serious research skills. Without a strong methodology, they were all too often taken for a ride. I realized that arguing with my friends on social media was a poor way of dealing with this issue, so began writing a guide to critical-thinking skills in my spare time. The final version has taken me more than four years to research and finesse. I think the information is much too important to put it behind a paywall, which is why I have decided to give it away for free.

So, who am I? I am a lifelong news reporter, with 25 years worth of experience breaking exclusive content about finance and business. In 2002, I left a major news organization that was 120 years old to join a punchy startup that focused on investigative reporting and business intelligence. Eighteen years later, I still work full-time for the company, which is now a unicorn with a proven business model at the cutting edge of the news business.

My research for the book also draws on my background as a philosophy graduate. I know many people have the stereotype that philosophy is an airy fairy subject, but in reality it is a field based on thinking critically about some seriously knotty problems. From 2012 to 2015, I successfully completed a part-time masters degree in media management while continuing to work as a reporter. The course introduced me to reflective practice, which I found was a very useful way of bridging the gap between my philosophy background and my job as an investigative reporter. I must also confess that I am a big geek, reading more than 100 non-fiction books most years. While researching the book, I took myself down a critical-thinking rabbit hole.

Having discussed my credentials, I want to make one thing very clear: I do not want to set myself up as some kind of critical-thinking guru. The attitude I want to promote is one of humility, skepticism and moderation. I can’t pretend to have the final answer. What I can give you instead are tools to help dismiss some of the least credible material, while holding our views lightly and trying to adjust our opinions to reality. The key will involve developing greater awareness of our emotions… but, we are getting ahead of ourselves. This will have to wait a little. If you think this project sounds exciting, please sign up for my Substack mailing list!

Update (25 April 2021)

The full beta version is available here

[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.