critical thinking

Bilingual

De Mottekasteel debating truc - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- The Motte-and-Bailey debating technique involves distracting opponents with agreeable generalities (the 'bailey') while avoiding discussion of the core, controversial position (the 'motte').
- This technique exploits the tendency of reasonable people to agree on broad, harmless points, wasting time and preventing critique of the actual proposal.
- To counter it, quickly steer the discussion to the opponent's weakest, most concrete position (the 'motte') using hard statistics, specific flaws, or direct questions about the proposal's details.
- Examples include abortion debates (focusing on the actual law's barriers rather than the value of family support) and Substack's Nazi content policy (challenging income from propaganda rather than free speech principles).
- Recognize typical bait: generalities everyone supports, emotional anecdotes, hypothetical strawman arguments, or abstract definitions; respond with concrete data, feasibility questions, or inconsistencies.
Don't say 'Europe Must Invest in XYZ' - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- Avoid vague statements like 'Europe must invest in XYZ' as they obscure who is responsible for action.
- Question the use of 'we' or 'us' without clear definition, as it implies false consensus and masks identity.
- Specify the actor (e.g., EU, companies, or individuals) when calling for investment to prevent ambiguity.
- Clarify the nature of 'investment'—whether it involves actual funding or just policy papers and meetings.
- Urge authors to write precise actions, e.g., 'European Commission should procure a secure email solution' instead of vague calls.
- Readers should treat imprecise statements about 'Europe' as a red flag for unclear thinking and demand details.
What You Can't Say
2 months ago
- Fashion, both in clothing and morality, is often invisible to those within it but can be arbitrary and dangerous, especially when moral fashions suppress truth.
- To discover what we cannot say, one can examine ideas that get people in trouble, historical shifts in acceptability, and the mechanisms by which taboos are created and enforced.
- A strategic approach to thinking freely involves keeping thoughts private, engaging with trusted friends, and using abstraction, metaphor, or humor to challenge taboos without direct confrontation.
- Critical self-awareness and questioning societal norms are essential to identify and resist the influence of contemporary moral fashions.
How to Think for Yourself
2 months ago
- Independent-mindedness is essential in fields like science, investing, startups, and essay writing, where novelty and correctness are both required.
- Most jobs (e.g., administration) only require being correct, not novel; choosing the wrong type of work based on your innate mindset can lead to unhappiness.
- People often misjudge their own independence; schools don't measure it, and conventional-minded people may overestimate their originality.
- You can enhance independent-mindedness by avoiding awareness of conventional beliefs, surrounding yourself with independent thinkers, reading history, and cultivating skepticism.
- Independent-mindedness consists of three components: fastidiousness about truth, resistance to being told what to think, and curiosity, which can compensate for each other.
- Curiosity can be cultivated by indulging it and seeking topics that engage you; the motto should be 'do what you're curious about.'
Human Routers of Machine Words
2 months ago
- Reading AI-generated content feels like a trick, evoking offense, sadness, and contempt for authors who use AI to write.
- Defending AI-assisted writing by claiming 'ideas are mine, writing is AI's' is flawed because ideas and writing are inseparable.
- Ideas are vague and nebulous; writing is the process that concretizes and refines them, revealing flaws and contradictions.
- Writing is the ultimate form of thinking, not a mere transcription of pre-formed ideas.
- AI-generated text shifts the burden of critical thinking to readers, who must verify coherence.
- The issue is not AI capability but the dishonesty and irresponsibility of humans who rely on AI to produce generic, unoriginal output.
Why I'm building a note taking app without AI
2 months ago
- Docket is a note-taking system for regular meetings, but it is not AI-based.
- Active note-taking means using your own brain to distill important notes rather than recording everything.
- Senior professionals distill key points in meetings; active note-taking helps capture those insights.
- AI cannot separate important points from noise or crystallize them in your mind at the moment of context.
- Active note-taking is a process for distilling and crystallizing important information when you have maximum context.
- Docket is built for people who value active note-taking, not for those who rely on AI transcription.
Are we offloading too much of our thinking to AI?
3 months ago
- Reflections on increasing tendency to offload thinking to AI for decisions and queries.
- Ken Liu's story 'The Perfect Match' and real-life examples illustrate over-reliance on AI for decision-making.
- AI tools like search engines and advanced models save time but risk reducing autonomy and critical thinking.
- Personal anecdotes show value in independent thinking, such as discussing historical perspectives without immediate AI help.
- AI can enhance productivity by automating mundane tasks but may lead to lazy thinking, as seen in education.
- Balance needed between automating tasks for efficiency and maintaining personal agency in thinking and learning.

critical thinking

De Mottekasteel debating truc - Bert Hubert's writings

Don't say 'Europe Must Invest in XYZ' - Bert Hubert's writings

What You Can't Say

How to Think for Yourself

Human Routers of Machine Words

Why I'm building a note taking app without AI

Are we offloading too much of our thinking to AI?