My experience studying sociology of science as an engineer was frustrating, and only later have I come to understand the fundamental differences between the sciences and the humanities and how they think of reality.Read more (4100 words)
Doubting conventional wisdom doesn’t necessarily make you a conspiracy theorist - skepticism should be universal and not only applied to "legitimate targets". It’s not always irrational to not change your mind when confronted with a piece of contrary evidence, and it can sometimes even be justified to increase your confidence that you’re right.Read more (2800 words)
Phrases like "fake news", "fact-resistance" and "post-truth" have recently become common. They support a narrative implying that a large segment of the population have lost contact with reality and become impervious to facts. This is a dangerous simplification that makes things worse.Read more (1200 words)
A second and more to the point attempt at pinning down what ”erisology” (or ”the study of disagreement”) actually is and what other fields are relevant to it.Read more (1100 words)
Among fans of ”Black Mirror” the opinions on individual episodes is remarkably diverse. Is there a hidden structure in people’s preferences? This sounds like a case for Principal Component Analysis.Read more (2600 words)
The ”war on Christmas” is an example of how a phrase can mean different things and how people typically aren’t interested in making sure they know what others mean. Also about how Christmas changing from unquestioned background norm to one of many cultural practices highlights the arbitrariness of traditions in ways that can be painful to be reminded about.Read more (3800 words)
Like how an interesting brainteaser can make someone temporarily obsessed, just seeing or hearing a short statement can sometimes cause you to spend hours arguing against it in your mind.Read more (700 words)
