IdeaMind & Psychology
What Is Cognitive Dissonance?
Why people paid one dollar to lie liked a dull task more than those paid twenty, and what cognitive dissonance does and does not explain.
7 min read≈ 1,620 words3 questions
Format
Ideas
One concept at a time, explained properly: what it is, how it works and what it is good for.
12 items
IdeaPhilosophy
What Is the Dichotomy of Control?
The Stoic idea that splits life into what is up to you and what is not: how it works, where it came from, and why aiming beats hitting.
8 min read≈ 1,650 words3 questions
IdeaPhysics & Chemistry
Why Is the Night Sky Dark? Olbers' Paradox, Explained
If the universe were endless and full of stars, every line of sight would end on one. Why the night is dark anyway, and what that reveals about time.
6 min read≈ 1,350 words3 questions
IdeaReligion & Spirituality
Who Are the Twelve Mahajanas?
The twelve great devotees named by the god of death in the Bhagavata Purana: who they are, why the list exists, and what it says about role models.
7 min read≈ 1,510 words3 questions
IdeaHistory & Civilization
What Were Tally Sticks?
How notched and split sticks of wood recorded debts in medieval England, why people traded them like money, and how they burned down Parliament.
7 min read≈ 1,460 words3 questions
IdeaEconomics & Business
What Is an After-Action Review?
The after-action review asks four questions after any project. Where the method comes from, how to run one step by step, and what the evidence says.
6 min read≈ 1,370 words3 questions
IdeaLearning & Living
What Is Inversion? Thinking Backward to Avoid Mistakes
Inversion solves a problem backward by asking what would make you fail. A worked example, its limits, and where Munger's famous rule comes from.
6 min read≈ 1,350 words3 questions
IdeaSociety & Politics
What Is the Wisdom of the Crowd?
Why 787 guesses at a country fair found the weight of an ox, what a crowd needs to be wise, and when the same crowd turns into a herd.
7 min read≈ 1,630 words3 questions
IdeaMathematics
What Is the Secretary Problem?
How to pick the best option when you see them one at a time and cannot go back. The 37 percent rule, worked through with ten flats, and its limits.
7 min read≈ 1,520 words3 questions
IdeaPhysics & Chemistry
Why Does the Universe Seem Fine-Tuned for Life?
Why small changes to a few numbers in physics would rule out stars and life, how the anthropic principle, multiverse and design answer it, and the doubts.
7 min read≈ 1,520 words3 questions
IdeaPhilosophy
What Is the Parable of the Chinese Farmer?
The story of the farmer who answers every piece of news with "maybe": where it comes from, what it teaches, and where it stops being good advice.
6 min read≈ 1,430 words3 questions
IdeaPhysics & Chemistry
What Is Sonoluminescence?
How a sound wave makes a tiny bubble in water collapse and flash with light, what a shrimp has to do with it, and what physicists still cannot explain.
7 min read≈ 1,500 words3 questions