What I’ve Been Reading

The art of rethinking and rediscovery, lies in questioning our ideas of authority, knowledge, judgement, right and wrong, and the process of rethinking itself. Ideas cannot be pinned down like butterflies: they come from people living and thinking though time, and are passed among us down the centuries. The same idea can be bad at one time and good at another. An idea can be bad in the sense of incorrect, but nonetheless good because it is the necessary stepping-stone to something better. More, generally, rethinking suggests than an idea can be good in the sense of useful, even if it is bad in the sense of wrong. It can be a placebo idea. Outrageously, it sometimes might not matter whether an idea is true or false. 

Rethink: The Surprising History of New Ideas by Steven Poole. Message of the book is don’t ignore old ideas; lots of new ideas are refurbished from old discarded ideas.

Wow ! I learned so many “old-new” things from this small book. A must read for everyone; I promise you it will make you humble.  I mean, the book covers Presentism, Truthifiable, Falsifiablity, Panpsychism, Teleological, Free Will vs. Free Won’t etc.,  do you need more?

Great quote by Enno Schmidt:

I’m proud of this because to do something good, you have to a bit stupid in that moment. Being a bit stupid allows you to see more. Don’t be too intelligent - because then you can think of every possible objection. This might be summed up as “Don’t overthink,; rethink”. 

Why is it a taboo to talk about population? Is it because most people want kids? its ridiculous ! 

In response to a 2015 article about global warming by Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker, for example, one reader wrote, “The world’s most difficult problems would be greatly ameliorated if we are able to reduce population, and this notion should be discussed.” By what means he thought that population ought to be “reduced” was, tellingly, left unsaid. Yet what Malthus actually wrote is far from the pessimistic misanthropy that is even today, usually unthinkingly, ascribed to him. 

Summary: 

Take an idea and see if it might be a black box (Lamarckism). Forget about whether an idea is true or false and consider its possible placebo effect (William James’s theory of emotion), or weather it is a necessary stepping-stone even if it might be wrong (dark energy). Ask whether an idea has been rejected not because it is stupid but because it would be a power-up (multilingual computer programming). Pay serious attention to the lease ridiculous option(panpsychism). Identify what we know we don’t know, to stimulate curiosity. Abandon common sense and bet against the market. Take another look at what seems too simple to work. Adopt the view from Tomorrow for an enlightening perspective on current thinking. The suspension of belief is a powerful engine of discovery, and of rediscovery.