Emotion Archives - Page 4 of 7

March 10, 2023

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that aims to influence people’s beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors towards a particular cause, idea, or ideology. It involves the use of persuasive influence techniques to shape public opinion and to create a favorable image of a person, group, or organization, while discrediting or demonizing its opponents.

Propaganda can take many different forms, including posters, speeches, films, radio broadcasts, social media posts, and news articles. It can be used for political, social, religious, or commercial purposes, and it is often associated with authoritarian regimes or totalitarian societies.

One of the key characteristics of propaganda is its use of emotional appeals, rather than rational arguments, to sway people’s opinions. Propagandists often appeal to people’s fears, hopes, bigotries, or prejudices, and use catchy slogans, symbols, or images to make their message more memorable and persuasive. They may also use repetition, exaggeration, or distortion of facts to reinforce their message and to create a sense of urgency or crisis.

Disinformation at scale

Another key feature of propaganda is its use of selective or biased information to support its claims and to discredit opposing views. Propagandists may use half-truths, rumors, lies, or Big Lies to create a false or misleading picture of the situation, and to manipulate people’s perceptions of reality. They may also use censorship or propaganda techniques such as suppression of dissent, demonization of opponents, or use of fear to create a chilling climate of fear and intimidation.

Propaganda can also be used to create a sense of unity or identity among a group of people, by emphasizing their shared values, beliefs, or interests, and by portraying outsiders or enemies as a threat to their well-being. Propaganda can thus be used to mobilize people for a common cause, such as a war or a political campaign, or to reinforce existing social norms and values.

However, propaganda can also have negative consequences, such as creating divisions, fostering hatred, or suppressing dissent. It can lead to the dehumanization of other groups or individuals, and to the justification of violence or discrimination. Propaganda can also undermine democracy by limiting people’s access to accurate information and by creating a distorted view of reality.

To resist propaganda, it is important to be critical of the messages we receive, to question the sources and motives of the information, and to seek out alternative perspectives and sources of information. We should also be aware of our own biases and prejudices, and strive to be open-minded and tolerant of different opinions and viewpoints.

More about propaganda

Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

March 8, 2023

The Conservative Mind

A growing body of psychological and cognitive research is showing that the conservative mind has a few things in common. Some research suggests that conservatives may be more attuned to potential threats and have a stronger emotional response to them compared to liberals. For example, studies have found that conservatives tend to have greater physiological responses to images and sounds that evoke fear or disgust.

Other studies have found that conservatives tend to score higher on measures of cognitive closure, which refers to the tendency to seek closure and avoid ambiguity and uncertainty. This may manifest as a preference for traditional values, adherence to fundamentalism, and a resistance to change. Additionally, conservatives may be more likely to rely on heuristics (mental shortcuts) when making decisions, whereas liberals may be more likely to engage in deliberative thinking.

It’s possible these traits at growing scale could present a profound challenge for American democracy in years to come:

are low in the “openness” trait — seek comfort and familiarity, and avoid novelty or challenge
dislike change and difference
tend to be rigid and dogmatic thinkers; close-minded
have a strong need for closure
have a high tendency to jump to conclusions while exuding self-righteous conviction
are high in conscientiousness, but low in conscience — many see life as a game to win at all costs, especially the social dominators
value loyalty
more likely than liberals to engage in motivated reasoning
more likely to have strong religious beliefs
more likely to engage in magical thinking
more likely to believe in conspiracy theories
more likely to exhibit authoritarian personality traits
more likely to harbor aggressive tendencies
tend to be controlling

More on the conservative mentality:

Fairness vs. Hierarchy ↗

Liberals believe in fairness; conservatives believe in hierarchy.

Rule of Law vs. Cult of Personality ↗

Democracy is built on the rule of law, but the right-wing tends to prefer a cult of personality.

Artists vs. Fundamentalists ↗

Artists are famously left-wing, and fundamentalists are classically right-wing..

March 7, 2023

McCarthyism

McCarthyism refers to the anti-communist political repression and paranoia that swept the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, beginning during the tenure of its originator: Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin. It was a period of intense fear and suspicion of communism during the Cold War that manifested in government investigations, trials, and blacklisting of individuals suspected of being communists or communist sympathizers. The era was marked by a pervasive fear of subversion and betrayal, as many Americans believed that communists were working to infiltrate and undermine American institutions.

The roots of McCarthyism can be traced back to the early 20th century, when communism was viewed as a major threat to Western democracy. The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of the Soviet Union fueled anti-communist sentiment in the United States, which intensified during the Red Scare of the 1920s. However, it was not until after World War II that anti-communist fervor reached its peak.

National anti-communist paranoia

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9835, which established a loyalty program for federal employees. The program required all federal employees to undergo a background check and sign a loyalty oath, swearing that they were not members of the Communist Party or affiliated with any other subversive organization. The program was intended to weed out any suspected communists from the federal government, but it soon became the basis for a broader campaign of anti-communist witch-hunts.

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to national prominence with his claims of widespread communist infiltration in the federal government. In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, McCarthy claimed to have a list of 205 known communists in the State Department. He provided no evidence to support his claim, but the speech propelled him to the national spotlight and began a period of intense media fascination with the Senator’s provocative claims.

Over the next several years, McCarthy became the face of the anti-communist crusade. He chaired the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and conducted public hearings and investigations into suspected communist activity. Many of his targets were innocent, and his tactics often included intimidation, character assassination, and guilt by association.

Army-McCarthy hearings

McCarthy’s tactics eventually led to his downfall. Between April and June of 1954, he conducted televised hearings to investigate alleged communist influence in the Army. The hearings were a disaster for McCarthy, as he made unfounded accusations and engaged in verbal attacks on witnesses. As the hearings progressed, McCarthy’s behavior became increasingly erratic and confrontational. He bullied and intimidated Army officials and witnesses, often interrupting them and accusing them of lying. His behavior turned public opinion against him, and the hearings marked the beginning of his decline.

The turning point of the hearings came when Army counsel Joseph Welch famously confronted McCarthy after he had attacked a young lawyer in Welch’s law firm:

“Senator, you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
Joseph N. Welch, Army chief counsel

Taking down Senator Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism

The exchange was a defining moment in the hearings, and it marked the beginning of the end for McCarthy’s political career after millions of Americans witnessed his aggressive demagoguery. In fact it went on to become one of the most famous moments in the history of congressional hearings, and is often cited as an example of the power of a well-timed and well-delivered rhetorical response.

The hearings ultimately failed to uncover any evidence of communist infiltration in the Army, but they did expose McCarthy’s reckless and abusive tactics and damaged his reputation. They also demonstrated the power of televised hearings in shaping public opinion and holding government officials accountable.

Historical influence of McCarthyism

McCarthyism had far-reaching consequences for American society. Thousands of people were investigated, blacklisted, and lost their jobs or were denied employment on suspicion of being communist sympathizers. The entertainment industry was particularly hard hit, with many actors, writers, and directors being blacklisted for their political beliefs. The unfounded smears against Hollywood contributed to a negative sentiment on the right-wing that continues even to this day.

The era of McCarthyism also had a chilling effect on free speech and political dissent. Many people were afraid to express their opinions or engage in political activism, for fear of being labeled a communist or communist sympathizer. The era demonstrated the dangers of political repression and the importance of protecting civil liberties and freedom of expression.

McCarthyism was a dark period in American history that was characterized by political repression, paranoia, and fear of communism. It was fueled by the perceived threat of subversion and betrayal, and it led to the persecution of innocent people, the erosion of civil liberties, and a chilling climate of fear and suspicion. The legacy of McCarthyism serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of political repression and the importance of protecting free speech and civil liberties in a democracy.

March 1, 2023

Essential thinkers on authoritarian personality theory

Many people around the world were shocked in the aftermath of World War II. How could “polite” society break down so utterly, so swiftly, and so zealously? Why did authoritarian personality traits come to dominate human affairs, seemingly out of nowhere? How thin is this veneer of civilization, really?

The authoritarian personality is characterized by excessive strictness and a propensity to exhibit oppressive behavior towards perceived subordinates. On the flip side, they treat authority figures with mindless obedience and unquestioning compliance. They also have an aversion to difference, ambiguity, complexity, and diversity.

How did they get this way? Are people born with authoritarian personalities, or is the authoritarian “made” predominately by circumstance?

Authoritarian personality studies

A braintrust of scholars, public servants, authors, psychologists, and others have been analyzing these questions ever since. Some of the most prominent thinkers on the subject of authoritarianism were either themselves affected by the Nazi regime, or lived through the war in some capacity. Other more recent contributions have built on those original foundations, refining and extending them as more new history continues to unfold with right-wing behavior to observe.

March 1, 2023

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are a group of mental health conditions that are characterized by persistent and inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that deviate significantly from cultural norms and cause distress and impairment in various areas of functioning, such as work, relationships, and self-image. Personality disorders typically begin in adolescence or early adulthood and tend to persist over time.

There are several types of personality disorders, each with its own unique set of symptoms and diagnostic criteria. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which is the standard diagnostic tool used by mental health professionals, identifies ten personality disorders organized into three clusters based on their shared features and clinical presentation.

Cluster A personality disorders

Cluster A personality disorders include paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders, which are characterized by odd, eccentric, and suspicious behavior. People with paranoid personality disorder have a pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others and may interpret benign remarks or events as threatening. Schizoid personality disorder is marked by a lack of interest in social relationships, emotional detachment, and solitary pursuits. Schizotypal personality disorder involves eccentricities in speech, behavior, and appearance, as well as unusual beliefs and experiences.

Cluster B personality disorders

Cluster B personality disorders include borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders, which are characterized by dramatic, erratic, and emotional behavior. Borderline personality disorder is characterized by unstable mood, self-image, and interpersonal relationships, as well as black and white thinking and impulsive and self-destructive behavior. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) involves a grandiose sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy, and an exaggerated sense of entitlement. Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by excessive emotionality, attention-seeking behavior, and exaggerated expressions of emotion. Antisocial personality disorder involves a disregard for the rights of others, a lack of remorse or guilt, and a tendency towards impulsive and irresponsible behavior.

Antisocial personality disorder, or ASPD, includes individuals colloquially known as sociopaths and psychopaths. All of the disorders within Cluster B include excessive narcissism as a foundational core, and within ASPD that extreme self-regard has a dark and amoral character referred to as malignant narcissism.

Cluster C personality disorders

Cluster C personality disorders include avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders, which are characterized by anxious, fearful, and perfectionistic behavior. Avoidant personality disorder involves social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to criticism or rejection. Dependent personality disorder is marked by a pervasive need for others to take care of them and an inability to make decisions without excessive reassurance or advice. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder involves preoccupation with rules, order, and perfectionism, as well as rigidity and inflexibility in one’s beliefs and values.

Effects and treatment

Personality disorders can cause significant distress and impairment in various areas of functioning, such as work, relationships, and self-image. People with personality disorders often struggle with interpersonal relationships, have difficulty maintaining employment, and may experience problems with substance abuse, self-harm, or suicidal ideation.

Treatment for personality disorders typically involves a combination of psychotherapy, medication, and support from family and friends. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and schema therapy are all effective in treating personality disorders. Antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotic medications may also be prescribed to manage specific symptoms. It is essential to seek help from a mental health professional if you or someone you know is struggling with a personality disorder.

February 22, 2023

Scapegoating

A scapegoat is a person or group who gets unfairly blamed for the wrongdoings, misdeeds, or crimes of others. Scapegoating is the act of doing this to someone.

The term comes originally from the Bible, in a story from Leviticus where a Jewish chief priest symbolically laid the sins of the people on a goat before releasing it into the wilderness. The goat psychologically cleansed the bad deeds of the population, serving as a convenient mechanism for group healing.

The modern scapegoat

In contemporary times the scapegoat metaphor is used to describe situations where a guilty party gets away scot-free by loudly and vociferously blaming an innocent “enemy” instead. This can be on a small scale like a workplace or a family, but it can also be on a larger scale within society — labelling entire groups or racial identities as “enemies” fictitiously and thus, dangerously.

Scapegoats have a close cousin in the political realm, in the “Us vs. Them” core dynamic of fascism. Fascists essentially pretend that only Outsiders are dangerous, because it gives anxious people the illusion of safety. This ideology increases the followers’ dependency on the in-group, to the point of hero worship or even cult worship.

The illusion of control

Scapegoating is often driven by prejudice and bigotry, fear, and a need to maintain the status quo. When people feel threatened, either by external factors such as economic or political instability or internal factors such as a sense of personal inadequacy, they may look for someone to blame. Scapegoating can provide a sense of control and empowerment, allowing people to believe that they are doing something to address the problem. However, this illusion of control comes at the cost of dehumanizing and harming others.

Scapegoating can have serious consequences for individuals and communities. The scapegoated individuals or groups can become marginalized, ostracized, and stigmatized. They can experience discrimination, harassment, and violence, both on a personal and group level. Moreover, scapegoating can distract attention from the real problems and prevent work towards constructive solutions. By focusing on blaming individuals or groups rather than addressing the root causes of problems, scapegoating can perpetuate injustice and inequality.

Dealing with scapegoating

Preventing scapegoating requires recognizing its underlying causes and addressing them. This can involve promoting empathy, understanding, and open communication, and fostering a sense of community and shared responsibility. It can also involve challenging the narratives that promote scapegoating and promoting a more nuanced understanding of complex issues, with less black and white thinking. Educating people about the dangers of scapegoating and the benefits of cooperation and collaboration can also help to prevent it.

Scapegoating is a harmful and unjust practice that involves blaming individuals or groups for the problems of a larger community. It can have serious consequences for the scapegoated individuals or groups and perpetuate injustice and inequality. Preventing scapegoating requires recognizing its underlying causes, promoting empathy and understanding, and challenging the narratives that promote it. By working together and taking responsibility for our collective well-being, there’s no reason why we can’t build a more just and equitable society.

February 20, 2023

Defense Mechanism

Defense mechanisms are a set of unconscious psychological processes that help individuals cope with stressful or anxiety-provoking situations. A defense mechanism protects the individual’s mental well-being by reducing or avoiding feelings of anxiety, guilt, or other forms of psychological distress. Defense mechanisms operate on an unconscious level, meaning that the individual is not aware of using them to cope.

Defense mechanisms can be adaptive or maladaptive, depending on the situation and the individual’s coping strategies. Adaptive defense mechanisms allow individuals to manage stress and anxiety in a healthy way, while maladaptive defense mechanisms can lead to problems with emotional regulation and social functioning.

Defense mechanism examples

Some commonly familiar examples of defense mechanisms in everyday life that can be positive (i.e. adaptive) include:

Humor: Using humor to diffuse a stressful situation can be a healthy way to cope, as it can help individuals see the situation in a more positive light.
Sublimation: Channeling negative emotions into constructive or creative outlets, such as art or sports, can be a beneficial way to cope with stress.
Altruism: Helping others can be an adaptive defense mechanism, as it can give individuals a sense of purpose and reduce their own feelings of anxiety as well as those of others they help.
Suppression: Deliberately putting aside troubling emotions or thoughts for a period of time can be a healthy way to cope with stressful situations.

In contrast, maladaptive defense mechanisms are not generally mentally healthy, and can lead to serious psychological problems, especially when overused. Some key examples of maladaptive defense mechanisms include:

Denial: Refusing to acknowledge a problem or a difficult situation can prevent individuals from taking appropriate action to address the issue. Denying the existence of a problem does nothing to change the reality of its existence.
Projection: Blaming others for one’s own negative feelings or behaviors can prevent individuals from taking responsibility for their own actions. Projection also creates or exacerbates conflict with others socially, which can introduce new problems to the existing difficulties of managing one’s negative emotions.
Repression: Pushing negative thoughts or memories into the unconscious can lead to feelings of anxiety or depression, as individuals are unable to process and address their feelings. Over time, repression can create enormous psychological distance between oneself and one’s own emotions, which can act as an existential kind of alienation from oneself.
Regression: Reverting to childlike behavior or emotional states can prevent individuals from effectively coping with stressful situations. We’ve all wanted to run and hide in the face of life’s challenges from time to time — but when people choose to actually do so, it usually exacerbates and compounds the existing problems they are unable or unwilling to face.

Defense mechanism vs. Coping strategies

One thing to note is that defense mechanisms are not the same as coping strategies. Coping strategies are conscious, intentional efforts to manage stress and anxiety, while defense mechanisms operate on an unconscious level. While some coping strategies may overlap with adaptive defense mechanisms, the two concepts are distinct.

Defense mechanisms are often used to protect the individual’s self-esteem and sense of well-being. They can be useful in certain situations, such as during times of acute stress or trauma. However, over-reliance on defense mechanisms can lead to problems with managing emotions and functioning in social settings. People who consistently use unhealthy defense mechanisms may benefit from therapy or other forms of treatment to help them develop healthier coping strategies.

Therapists and mental health professionals may use techniques such as psychoanalysis or cognitive-behavioral therapy to help individuals identify and address their defense mechanisms. By becoming more aware of these unconscious processes, individuals can develop healthier coping strategies and improve their ability to manage emotions and participate fully in social life.

February 9, 2023

Top Mental Models

Top Mental Models for Thinkers

Mental models are different ways of mapping or viewing a system or a problem. They are frameworks that help explain what’s going on, and predict what’s likely to happen next.

Model thinking is an excellent way of improving our cognition and decision making abilities. Thinking in models helps us understand how new concepts fit with older observations, and what theories and metaphors are likely to endure.

They are useful in strategy, decision-making, analysis, planning, and a broad range of applications in both our personal and professional lives. It’s a good investment to spend time learning models — which are most typically extensible outside their original field of interest.

Often more than one model can apply to a situation or problem. Models are useful for picturing the issue in a different way, through a different lens — and perhaps to see something before unseen. They can help us try out different scenarios with ideas or personas.

Top Models and Concepts

We all have learnings in our lives we consider more precious than others — explanations and predictions that endure and keep on giving, versus those that fade away. Our core models form the backbone of our thinking and decision-making throughout our lives; it’s our grab bag of problem solving tools — and we want to have a resilient Swiss Army Knife at the ready at all times. These mental models help us understand a complex world, and prepare for all the changes that are inevitably ahead.

This set of top models below is my personal “desert island” set of model thinking concepts. These are the ones I really wouldn’t want to be caught dead leaving the house without.

Once these are on lock, head over to the unabridged models section for more model thinking goodness!

I will continue to add to this list over time as well as fill in the number of holes that remain in the set. Learning about new mental models is one of my favorite activities — it’s the closest thing to a superpower I can think of.

Term	Type	Topic	Definition
80/20 rule	Model	Economics	Also known as a power law, or the Pareto Principle
absolute advantage	Term	Economics	The ability of a party to produce a product or service more efficiently than any of its competitors.
absolute value	Term	Math	The value of a function irrespective of its sign (positive or negative). Its distance from zero, expressed as a positive.
accessibility	Term	Psychology	How easy something is to call to mind
acquittal	Legal precedent	Law	A judgment of not guilty in a criminal trial
activation energy	Term	Science	A chemistry term that describes the minimum energy required for a chemical system to react; the amount of energy required to get two or more compounds to react.
adverse selection	Term	Economics	Insurance phenomenon in which buyers or sellers in a transaction can use insider knowledge to unfairly get a better advantage over the other party or parties
a fortiori	Logic	Logic	From the Latin, "from a stronger argument," the phrase refers to conclusions for which there is stronger evidence than a previously accepted one.
akrasia	Term	Psychology	A state of mind where someone acts against their own better judgment due to weakness of will.
alea iacta est	Metaphor	Metaphor	In Latin, "the die is cast" -- attributed to Julius Caesar as he crossed the river Rubicon, leading an attack on Rome: a metaphor for a point of no return.
allocation	Method	Economics	Distributing resources, assets, or funds amongs recipients.
"All the world's a stage“	Metaphor	Arts	Shakespearean metaphor likening culture to a theatrical performance: "And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances ..." —William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Amara's Law	Theory	Science	We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.
annuity	Term	Economics	A series of regular payments at equal intervals.
antifragility	Model	Economics	Things that can benefit from disorder, and grow stronger amidst chaos. When something grows stronger under stress; when there is more upside to downside of experiencing a shock to the system.
antimatter	Theory	Science	Antimatter particles are the precise opposite charge and spin from their matter counterparts, but identical otherwise.
appreciation	Model	Economics	The tendency of an asset to appreciate, or grow, with value over time.
a priori	Logic	Philosophy	Information deduced from logical precedents versus empirical observation.
arbitrage	Model	Economics	A method of turning profit via simultaneous purchase and sale of the same assets in different markets, benefiting from the differences in listed price in various geographical regions.
archetypes	Symbol	Philosophy	An ideal type; a model after which others are fashioned.
arrow of time	Theory	Science	Theory of physics stating an asymmetry of time -- that time has a one-way direction in which the entropy of the universe is only increasing. Although human beings perceive the past as being different from the future -- and that we remember the past, but not the future -- intrinsically there is nothing in the structure of the universe that defines past from future. Time is instead an emergent feature.
artificia docuit fames	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	Latin saying meaning, "sophistication is born out of hunger" -- a metaphor for innovation and genius being awakened by challenge, difficulty, and constraints.
ASCII	Term	Technology	American Standard Code for Information Interchange: a standard character translation table used by computers to convert numerical representations into printable characters.
asking a fish about water	Metaphor	Metaphor	There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”
asset	Term	Economics	A valuable object or good.
astroturfing	Method	Politics	The deceptive political practice of paying operatives to pose as members of the public engaging in "grassroots protest" as a way of adding plausible deniability as well as amplification of their point of view.
asymmetric encryption	Term	Computer Science	Also known as public-key cryptography, asymmetric encryption encrypts and decrypts the data using two separate keys that are related mathematically (a public and a private key).
asymptote	Term	Math	The graph of a curve as it is approaching a numerical value or limit, but never quite reaching it.
autophagy	Experimental finding	Biology, Medicine	The body's way of cleaning out damaged cells and replace them with newer, healthier cells. Literally, "self-eating."
availability bias	Model	Psychology	Cognitive distortion arising from the unconscious preference for information that is recent rather than what is representative.
average	Method	Math	A measure of central tendency of a set of data, whether the mean, media, or mode.
balance sheet	Method	Economics	A financial document showing the book value of a company, i.e. how much it's worth.
balancing loop	Model	Systems theory	A balancing loop attempts to move a current state (the way things are) to a desired state (goal or objective) though an action (thing(s) done to reach the goal).The balancing loop is one of the two foundational structures of systems thinking, along with the Reinforcing Loop. A balancing loop is representative of any situation where there is a goal or an objective and action is taken to achieve that goal or objective.
Baldwin Effect	Model	Science	As organisms learn to shape their environment, they can alter the path of evolution. For example, with the advent of dairy farming, selection pressures began favoring lactose absorption genes in humans.
bank reserves	Term	Economics	Cash minimums banks must have on hand to meet regulatory requirements ensuring the financial system is equipped to handle periodic shocks in demand for withdrawals.
bank run	Term	Economics	Economic term for when a large group of bank depositors withdraw their money all at once -- once a common occurrence that rarely happens anymore in the modern world.
base conversion	Math	Math	The base is how many numbers there are in a number system; we use base 10 primarily, and computers use base 2, aka binary. Base conversion is the method of converting numbers from one base system to another.
Base Rate Fallacy	Model	Psychology	A type of fallacy in which people tend to ignore the general prevalence of something in favor of specific anecdotes.
base weighting	Math	Statistics
Bayes' Theorem	Method	Math	A mathematical method of determining the updated probability of a certain event or case, given new information.
bend the knee	Metaphor	Social psychology	Give up one's own opinion and swear fealty to a higher authority.
beta	Method	Economics	In finance, a term that refers to investments tracking the broad market performance of an exchange or industry sector
The Big Bang	Model	Science	The massive explosion which spawned our entire universe, back at the beginning of time.
The Big Crunch	Model	Science
binary numbers	Math	Math
binomial distribution	Math	Statistics
Binomial Theorem	Theory	Math
black hole	Theory	Science
Black-Scholes model	Model	Economics
Black Swan	Model	Economics	A highly improbable and unexpected event -- which yet occurs with more frequency than one might generally assume.
blockchain	Term	Technology	The basis of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology is a kind of public ledger or shared database that records transactions transparently and out in the open, in a way that anyone can access or verify.
boiling frog	Metaphor	Philosophy	A metaphor for the common occurence of slow, gradual changes over time not being noticed, like the (contested) legend of a scienfitic experiment that boiling a frog alive by starting with tepid water and slowly turning up the temperature.
bond	Method	Economics
Boyle's Law	Scientific Law	Science	A scientific law that describes the relationship between the pressure and the volume of a confined gas.
boundary object	Theory	Technology	Information science concept describing information used in different ways, by different communities, for collaborative work through scales.
bounded rationality	Experimental finding	Psychology	A central challenge to the c. 1776 ideas of Adam Smith regarding the Invisible Hand of markets, this 20th c. psychological theory posits that rather than making optimized rational decisions, at most times the average person is "satisficing" or making the most expedient choice under considerable constraints and lack of available information
bricolage	Method	Arts	Combination of many types and forms into one piece; a pastiche or mashup of style and cultural referents
broken windows theory	Theory	Law
Butterfly Effect	Model	Science
bystander effect	Experimental finding	Psychology
cadence	Term	Arts
camel's nose	Metaphor	Philosophy	a metaphor describing how allowing a smaller innocuous act may lead to larger acts that are undesirable
capital gains	Term	Economics	Money that is earned as a result of a stock investment appreciating in value — the capital "gains in value"
capital requirements		Economics	Actual cash on hand for banks to theoretically offer at a given time, with the rest lended out as leverage
carbon-14	Scientific Law	Science
carbon dating	Method	Science	A way to scientifically determine the age of an organic object by radioactive decay.
carpe diem	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	In Latin, "seize the day" -- a reference often used to motivate oneself and others to act boldly and live vigorously in the moment.
cartel		Economics
catalyst	Model	Science
categorical data		Math
causa-sui project	Theory	Psychology
cause and effect	Model
caveat emptor	Ancient Wisdom	Strategy	"Beware, the buyer" in Latin -- a reference to a warning about what one is getting into.
cellular automata		Math
Central Limit Theorem	Math	Statistics	In probability theory, the CLT establishes that independent random variables when measured will tend towards the normal distribution.
central tendency	Math	Statistics	A measure of the midpoint of a data set; includes mean, median, and mode.
ceteris paribus	Method	Economics	"All other things being equal"; holding the effects of other variables constant to determine the effects on a single variable of interest.
charge preservation		Science
charlatan		Psychology	one who aspires to wealth &/or fame through trickery and deception
Chesterton's Fence	Model	Metaphor
chilling effect	Term	History	The inhibition of one's legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by threat of legal sanction.
cognitive bias	Experimental finding	Psychology
collapse	Model	Systems theory
comparative advantage		Economics
composite events		Statistics	in probability
compound interest	Model	Economics
conditionals		Math
Condorcet Jury Theorem	Math	Statistics
confidence interval		Statistics	the range of values over which a predicted outcome may lie; the amount of certainty one has about the predicted value falling within the estimated range
confirmation bias	Experimental finding	Psychology
conflation		Psychology
consent of the governed	Philosophy	Politics	Concept of political philosophy in which a government's legitimacy and right to use state power is only justified if consented to by the people over whom said power is wielded.
consequentialism		Philosophy
conservation of energy	Scientific Law	Chemistry	In a closed system, total energy remains constant.
conservation of mass	Scientific Law	Physics	In a closed system, mass remains constant.
conservation of momentum	Scientific Law	Physics	In a closed system, momentum remains constant.
constraints		Math
Consumer Sentiment Index		Economics
continuous vs. discrete variables		Statistics
Copernican theory of the solar system	Scientific Law	Science
correlation		Statistics
correlation coefficient		Statistics
correlation is not causation	Scientific Law	Statistics
cosine	Math	Math
counterfactual
countervailing power		Economics	Economist John Kenneth Galbraith's concept for how collective worker power is needed to balance against growing corporatism in the economy.
creative destruction	Model	Economics	Economist Joseph Shumpeter's idea for how the business cycle works: by innovation disrupting established processes and industries and forcing change into markets, often destructively and swiftly.
credo quia absurdum			"I believe because it is absurd" — Tertullian's defense of belief in the miracles attributed to Christ
critical mass		Science
crossing the Rubicon	Metaphor	History	Making a decision from which there is no turning back; a reference to Julius Caesar's overthrow of the Roman republic to found the Roman Empire in 49 BCE.
cross-sectional data		Math
crowdfunding		Economics
crowdsourcing	Method	Systems theory
cryptocurrency		Economics
Dark Matter	Theory	Science
dead hand of the past	Philosophy	History	Problem inherent in constitutional political philosophy, where eventually a people becomes ruled by "masters" no longer alive, who rule by "fiat" via a document, from beyond the grave (Thomas Jefferson's concept)
death spiral
decision theory		Systems theory
decision tree	Method	Computer Science
de minimis	Legal precedent	Law
depreciation	Method	Economics
derivatives		Math
diminshing marginal utility (DMU)	Model	Economics
directory structure		Computers
dispersion	Math	Statistics	the amount of variation within a set of data; how spread out the data points are from each other
distributions	Math	Statistics
divergent thinking		Psychology
diversity	Experimental finding	Science
Diversity Prediction Theorem
dividend payments	Method	Economics	Periodic, usually quarterly, payouts to stockholders of the company when posting profits. Along with capital gains, one of the 2 primary reasons to invest in stocks.
Dodd-Frank Act of 2010	Legal precedent	Economics	definitive financial regulation of the financial industry following the 2007-8 financial crisis
domain dependence
Doppler Effect	Scientific Law	Physics
double helix
doxa		Social psychology	common belief or opinion
Drake Equation	Model	Science	Estimation of the number of technological civilizations that might exist in the universe.
dualism		Philosophy
Dunbar number	Theory	Psychology
Dunning-Kruger Effect	Experimental finding	Psychology	A cognitive bias in which people mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as higher than it actually is, because they cannot recognize their incompetence in comparison to others.
Duverger's Law	Model	Politics	Holds that plurality-rule elections within single member districts — such as the structure found in the U.S. — tend to favor two-party systems
Easterlin paradox	Experimental finding	Economics	Beyond a certain point, countries don't get happier as they get richer.
economies of scale		Economics
edge case	Metaphor	Science
elasticity; price elasticity	Model	Economics	The ability of pricing mechanisms to respond quickly or less quickly to changes in prevailing conditions.
elasticity of demand	Model	Economics
elasticity of supply	Model	Economics
electromagnetic spectrum	Scientific Law	Science
electron cloud	Model	Science	Refers to the true nature of an electron's existence around an atom, wherein its location in space is not a definite point, but a fuzzy region of probable occurence.
elephants and flies	Metaphor	Economics	Sales concept to quickly segment leads into size buckets, from elephants > deers > rabbits > mice > flies.
elephant and rider	Model	Psychology	Psychological idea about how our unconscious and semi-conscious desires dominate us, but can be directed by reason (Jonathan Haidt et al)
embargo	Legal precedent	Economics
Emperor's New Clothes	Metaphor	Government
encryption		Math
ensemble learning	Method	Technology
entropy	Scientific Law	Science	The disorder of a system increases over time.
epistemology		Philosophy
e pluribus unum	Symbol	Politics	Latin: "one out of many" — one of several phrases on the American dollar bill, it refers to the unity of the nation as made up of its many peoples and as such, signifies the republic.
equality under law	Legal precedent	Politics	An ancient principle of vital importance to almost every constitution in the world, stating that all people should be treated equally in the eyes of the law, and that all individuals are subject to the same set of laws
equilibrium		Science	A resting condition all systems seek, in which all competing inflows and outflows are in balance.
equity		Economics
equity crowdfunding		Economics
error-embracing		Psychology
event horizon	Scientific Law	Physics	A boundary beyond which events cannot affect on observer, such as the edge of a black hole.
evolution	Scientific Law	Science
exception handling	Method	Computer Science	The process of responding to the occurrence of exceptions -- unexpected conditions that throw the application into an error state and must be resolved before continuing.
exchange rates		Economics	The value of one country's currency as measured against another
existentialism		Philosophy
exit strategy	Method	Economics
externalities		Economics
extrapolation		Statistics
factorial		Math
factum tacendo, crimen facias acrius		Philosophy	He who does not stop a crime is an accomplice.
fact /value problem		Philosophy
fake news		Media
false negatives	Logic	Science
false positives	Logic	Science
false consensus effect	Experimental finding	Social psychology
falsifiability	Logic	Science	Ability to be proven untrue; a requirement for a theory to be called scientific.
Feynman Technique	Method	Science	A method of learning and remembering difficult concepts by simplifying them until you can explain it to a new student or layperson who knows nothing about that concept.
fiat money		Economics
fiduciary duty	Legal precedent	Economics
fifth column	Model	Politics	A group who unites in secret to undermine a larger group from within.
file system	Metaphor	Computer Science
filter bubble	Metaphor	Social psychology
first mover advantage	Experimental finding	Strategy
first principles	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy
fishing expedition	Metaphor
fitness function	Term	Science	In AI, refers to a set of selection criteria applied to a set of potential solutions to a problem to allow only the better candidates to survive to the next generation.
flâneur	Term	Arts
force multiplier	Model	Science
fractals	Math	Computer Science
fractional lending	Method	Economics	Fractional reserve banking is the traditional way of doing business, in which banks loan out multiples of the assets they actually have on hand. This falls apart if there is ever a run on the bank, when every client demands their money back at the same time.
fractions	Term	Math
fragility		Philosophy
framing		Psychology
free trade	Method	Economics
free will	Philosophy	Philosophy
freshwater vs. saltwater economists		Economics
Friend of the Court filing		Law
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)		Social psychology
fundamental attribution error	Experimental finding	Psychology
future value		Economics
gain	Term	Arts	In audio recording, a control that allows more or less of the source sound into the channel being recorded.
game theory		Math
Gates' Law	Theory	Philosophy	The idea that software development speed halves every 18 months, negating the acceleratory effects of Moore's Law and preventing computing from leaping greatly forward.
Gaussian distribution	Term	Statistics	the Normal distribution
GDP (Gross Domestic Product)	Model	Economics	The sum of all public and private goods produced within a given period; a measure of a country's economic health.
general relativity	Theory	Science
general will	Model	Government
generalists and specialists		Philosophy
genetic algorithms		Science	An approach to AI based on evolutionary models, in which multiple candidate solutions to a problem are generated randomly by mutation and recombination, then iterated over thousands of generations through fitness functions to weed out the best of each generation.
germ theory of disease	Scientific Law
Gettier problem		Philosophy
gilding the lilly	Metaphor	Arts	Speaking so floridly of a subject that one actually tarnishes its natural beauty.
GOFAI		Technology	"Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence" — reference to the style and general algorithmic approach of early artificial intelligence work, which fell out of popularity over the decades in favor of more organic neural net and evolutionary approaches.
Golden calf
Golden Mean	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	Aristotelian theory of an ideal balance point between the many extremes we face in life; he advocated harmony between the various spheres of life for an experience of happiness.
Golden Rule	Ancient Wisdom	Culture	"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you" is the essence of this ancient wisdom, often used as a shorthand version of Jesus's core teaching.
Goldilocks Zone	Model
gold standard	Legal precedent	Economics
gravity	Scientific Law	Science
gravity waves		Physics
habeas corpus	Legal precedent	Law
habitus	Theory	Social psychology
Hanlon's Razor	Model	Philosophy	never attribute to malice what is adequately described by carelessness
hard determinism		Philosophy
harmonics		Arts
hearts and minds		Politics
hedge funds		Economics
hedonism	Philosophy	Philosophy
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle	Theory	Science
hexadecimal numbers	Term	Math	base 6
heuristics	Model	Psychology	Mental shortcuts that we do as a matter of routine, especially when we're stressed or under other types of cognitive constraints.
hormesis		Science	When a small dose of a toxic substance is actually beneficial to the living thing that ingests it
hydra		Metaphor
iatrogenics		Health	harm done by the healer
ice core dating	Method	Science
id, ego, superego	Model	Psychology	Freud's psychological model of the conscious and unconscious mind.
implicit cost		Economics
Imposter Syndrome	Model	Psychology	A psychological pattern in which one doubts their own accomplishments and has a generalized fear of being exposed as a fraud.
index number; indexing		Statistics
inferior goods		Economics
inflation	Model	Economics
inflection point		Math	The point of a curve at which a change in the direction of the curve occurs.
intellectual property	Legal precedent	Economics	IP
interest	Model	Economics
interest rate		Economics
internal rate of return (IRR)		Economics
Internet of Things (IoT)	Term	Technology
intersection		Math
interventionism		Social psychology
Invisible Hand	Theory	Economics
IP addresses	Term	Technology
iron law of oligarchy	Theory	Politics	Political theory positing that no matter how democratic a group may start out, over time it will develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a small handful.
It from Bit	Theory	Physics	John Wheeler's theory about the fundamental informational nature of the universe
Keynesian economics	Theory	Economics
Keynesian Put	Model	Economics
keystone
Kronos Effect	Model	Economics	the tendency of a successful corporation to seek to acquire and/or drive its upstart competitors out of business
Laffer Curve	Theory	Economics
law of excluded middle
Law of Large Numbers	Scientific Law	Math	As the number of coin tosses approaches infinity, the number of heads encountered will converge on 0.5; helpful in calculations of probability.
least-barricaded gate	Metaphor	Politics	Trotsky's metaphor of how social revolutions can take hold more easily in already weakened societies.
lecturing birds how to fly	Metaphor	Metaphor
length contraction	Model	Physics
less is more	Philosophy	Metaphor
L'etat c'est moi	Philosophy	Politics	"I am the state“
leverage		Economics
lifeboat ethics	Philosophy	Philosophy
light-weight process		Computer Science
limit of a function	Term	Math	if the graph of an equation seems to approach a numerical value but never quite reaches it, we say that number is the limit of the function (approaching from the negative or positive direction; sometimes directionality is important)
limiting factor	Model	Systems Theory
linear regression	Method	Math
liquidity		Economics
local min	Model	Systems Theory	idea that to grow out of a stasis or plateau, you likely have to endure a period of "setback" that is a lower dip or minimum value from where you are now, but is what's required to get over the activation energy to reach the next level
locus of control
logarithm		Math
logical fallacies		Philosophy
long tail	Model	Math	In a power law distribution (of population, ages, items, etc.), the region of the graph that tapers off quickly after the initial segment of high data points
loss aversion	Experimental finding	Psychology
Lost Einsteins	Theory	Culture	http://doctorparadox.net/models/lost-einsteins/
loyalists and mercenaries	Metaphor	Systems Theory
maker's time and manager's time	Model	Systems Theory
M1		Economics
M2		Economics
mandala	Ancient Wisdom	Religion	Introcate and elaborate patterns created with colored sand by Buddhist monks, who blow away their creations at the end to signify their celebration of impermanence.
Manichaean	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	a narrowly-defined dualistic worldview of good against evil
man on horseback	Metaphor		Synonym for a demagogue. Comes from French general Georges Ernest Boulanger, and refers to a military leader who presents himself as the savior of the country during a crisis and either assumes or threatens to assume dictatorial powers.
map is not the territory	Metaphor	Metaphor	A phrase reminding us that our mental picture of a thing is not the same as the actual thing itself
margin of error	Math	Statistics	How much uncertainty there is in the results; a percentage the estimate may be bounded by.
marginal benefit		Economics
marginal cost		Economics
marginal returns		Economics
marginal utility		Economics
market share		Economics
Markov chain	Term	Math
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs	Model	Psychology
mean	Math	Statistics	The average value of the numbers in a data set; take the sum of all values and divide by the total number of values in the set.
median	Math	Statistics	Like mean, another way to describe the central tendency of a data set.
Median Voter Theorem	Theory	Politics
megalopsychon	Philosophy	Philosophy	Concept in Aristotelian ethics of living with grandeur and taking risks with dignity; being nonsmall
mens rea	Legal precedent	Law	"guilty mind" — establishing the intent of a perp can help to establish criminal liability
mercantilism	Theory	Economics
meritocracy	Model	Systems Theory
metaphysics	Philosophy	Philosophy
mirror neurons	Experimental finding	Science
mode	Math	Statistics	The frequency with which each data point exists in the set.
monopoly	Model	Economics	Market condition in which there exists only one seller of a resource.
monopsony	Model	Economics	Market condition in which there exists only one buyer of a resource.
Moore's Law	Theory	Technology	Named after Gordon Moore, the model predicts the doubling of transistors on a circuit of equivalent size every 18 months to 2 years. This has many consequences for both technology and economics, including the predictable drop in price of generating the same amount of computing power each period.
moral hazard	Model	Economics	when one party takes on additional risk, knowing that other parties will bear the brunt of the risk in event of a loss
Moravec's Paradox
MVP (minimum viable product)	Term	Economics
naive cynicism		Psychology	State of mind in which people believe others to have more egocentric bias than is warranted or is actually the case.
Narcissus & Echo	Ancient Wisdom	Metaphor
Nash Equilibrium	Theory	Math
nasty, brutish, and short	Theory	Philosophy
natural laws		Science
natural selection	Scientific Law	Science
necessity is the mother of invention	Common Wisdom	Culture
negative externalities	Model	Economics
negative interest rates	Method	Economics
neomania	Experimental finding	Social psychology	love of the modern for its own sake
neural net	Term	Technology
net present value (NPV)	Model	Economics
neuroplasticity	Experimental finding	Science
Newton's first law	Scientific Law	Science	An object in motion will tend to stay in motion, unless acted upon by a force.
Newton's second law	Scientific Law	Science	F = ma, or an object of mass m feeling a force F will tend to accelerate by an amount a.
Newton's third law	Scientific Law	Science	When 2 objects interact, they each apply force on the other in equal amounts magnitude, in the opposite direction.
nodes	Term	Math
noosphere	Thought Experiment	Data science	Sphere of human thought — all interacting minds on earth. An early 1900s concept from Teilhard de Chardin
nominal figures		Economics
nonlinearity		Math
Normal distribution	Scientific Law	Math
normal goods		Economics
normalized weighted average		Statistics
normative and descriptive		Philosophy
noumena		Philosophy
novus ordo seclorum	Symbol	Government	A new order for the ages; Latin phrase seen on the American dollar bill.
null hypothesis	Method	Science
observer effect	Experimental finding	Science
Occam's Razor	Theory	Philosophy	A philosophical rule of thumb that favors the simplest explanation. Also known as the "law of parsimony."
octal numbers	Math	Computer Science	base 8
oligopoly	Term	Economics
omphalos		Politics
opportunity cost	Model	Economics	What you miss out on by using a resource in a certain way -- what you would have done with the resource otherwise; what alternative use you would have put it to.
options		Economics
orders of magnitude	Scientific Law	Math
ordinally ranked data		Statistics
organizational debt		Economics
oscillations		Science
out-group bias	Experimental finding	Social psychology
outlier	Model	Math	Data points that fall well outside of the normal distribution or expected distribution of a data set.
paradox	Model	Logic	A self-contradicting statement or logically impossible event.
paragon	Model	Culture	A standard against which something can be judged — an exemplar example of a thing
Pareto Principle	Experimental finding	Economics	Another term for the 80/20 Rule
path dependent	Math	Computer Science
Pavlovian response	Experimental finding	Science
pax Romana	Legal precedent	History
pearls before swine	Metaphor	Culture	The sense of wasting one's efforts for people who don't really appreciate them.
P/E Ratio	Method	Economics	Price to earnings ratio: standard measure of relative stock performance
permutations	Math	Computer Science
Peter Principle	Theory	Systems Theory	Theory that individuals within corporate and other organizational hierarchies will rise to the highest level at which they become incompetent in their job duties.
phase shift	Scientific Law	Science	The ability of matter to change phases, most famously water from liquid to ice to vapor and back again.
philosopher kings	Ancient Wisdom
Philosopher's Stone	Unsolved Mystery
phonemes	Experimental finding
plant a seed	Metaphor
Platonic forms	Model
Platonicity		Philosophy	adherence to crisp abstract theory & forms that blind us to the mess of actual reality
Plato's Cave	Model	Philosophy	Allegory in Plato's Republic about a cave dweller whose only picture of reality is the shadow on the cave wall thrown by the fire.
pluralism		Government
point of no return	Metaphor	Culture
polling	Method	Statistics
Pollyanna Principle	Model	Psychology	The tendency for people to remember pleasant events more accurately than unpleasant ones.
populism		Government
positron	Scientific Law	Physics	an antimatter electron
Potemkin Village Effect	Model	Systems Theory	Tendency of systems to create the appearance of functioning normally — to appease the operators who wish it so — even when they are not.
precision		Math
present value		Economics	The expected current value of an income stream.
price ceiling		Economics
price floor		Economics
prima facie
principle of indifference		Statistics	In probability, when there is no basis to choose some outcomes as more likely than others, they are given equal weight (1/2 chance of a particular side of a coin, 1/52 to get a particular card from a deck, etc.).
Prisoner's Dilemma	Thought Experiment	Math
private equity (PE)	Method	Economics
probability		Math
probability distribution	Math	Statistics
Procrustean bed	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	Synonymous with ruthlessly enforcing conformity, the phrase comes from a Greek tale of extreme "form fitting" on the part of Poseidon's son Procrustes, a robber who is said to have attacked victims by cutting off men's legs or stretching them on racks accordingly to fit an iron bed size.
profit	Legal precedent	Economics
propaganda	Method	Social psychology	originally, a way to "propagate" any idea; used by both sides in WWI, it thereafter took on a sinister connotation when American & British citizens felt hoodwinked by their govt's use of it
proper frame		Physics	in physics, the frame of reference that accelerates with you and determines your age
proportionality	Model	Math
prospect theory		Psychology
proximate cause	Logic
proxy war	Term	Politics
pseudoscience	Method	Culture
PTSD		Psychology
punctuated equilibrium	Model	Science
putting legs on a snake	Metaphor
Pygmalian Effect		Social psychology
Pyrrhic victory	Metaphor	History	A victory in which the costs of winning far outweigh the rewards.
quantum computing	Method	Computer Science
quantum entanglement	Theory	Physics
quantum physics		Science
qubit		Science
quid pro quo	Legal precedent	Law
quota
r > q	Model	Economics	Thomas Piketty's elegant demonstration of the rise of inequality
random walks		Math
range		Statistics	In a set of numbers, the difference between the highest value and the lowest value in the data set.
rara avis	Ancient Wisdom	Culture	"Rare bird" in Latin; similar to an outlier. Someone who stands out.
rate of return		Economics
Reagonomics		Economics
realism		Philosophy
reality testing	Model	Psychology	Discerning the difference between inner and outer, and seeing events as they really are, and not just what we want them to be.
received wisdom	Ancient Wisdom	Religion
recursion	Method	Math
red shift	Scientific Law	Science
reductio ad absurdo	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	Collapsing things too far, in a way that destroys real significance.
reductio ad finem	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	To analyze to the end — break the concept down into its conponent parts.
redundancy	Method	Systems Theory	Having multiple pathways within a system to accomplish the same task or achieve the same objective.
reference frame		Physics	A frame that does not accelerate; also known as a Lorentz frame.
regnat populus
regression analysis	Method	Statistics
reincarnation	Unsolved Mystery	Religion
reinforcing loop		Systems theory
relativity	Theory	Physics	Einstein's central insight that the experience or perceived passage of time depends greatly on the conditions of the observer, particularly with respect to velocity and gravity
resilience	Model	Systems Theory	Ability to bounce back into shape after having been pressed or stretched; elasticity. The ability to recover quickly.
respice finem	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy	"Consider that you will die" — i.e. live life as you would in order to be proud of it by the time it's over.
res publica	Ancient Wisdom	Government	pertaining to the state
retrodiction
revenue		Economics
ripple effect	Experimental finding	Science
risk	Legal precedent	Economics
risk-weighted assets (RWAs)		Economics
root cause		Philosophy
Rosetta Stone	Experimental finding	History	Metaphorically, a key to unlocking the secrets of a given thing.
rounding	Method	Math
rounding error		Math
rule of law	Legal precedent	Philosophy
run on the bank
sampling	Method	Statistics
samsara		Religion
scarcity		Economics
Schelling's Tipping Model
Schrödinger's Cat	Theory	Physics
search intent	Term	Media
second-order thinking
selection bias	Experimental finding	Psychology
self-governance	Philosophy
set theory		Math
ship of Theseus	Ancient Wisdom	Metaphor
SIFI		Economics	systemically important financial institution; post-2008 financial crisis designation for banks deemed "too big to fail" (currently, firms holding more than $50b in assets)
sigma		Statistics	standard deviation, named for the Greek letter denoting the statistical term
signal path		Physics
significant figures		Math	aka "sig figs"
simulation		Philosophy
sine	Math	Physics
sine wave	Math	Physics
Single point of failure (SPoF)	Term	Computer Science	A part of a system that, when it fails, brings down the entire rest of the system or stops it from working properly
singularity	Theory	Science	A black hole.
SIR model	Model	Science	contagious disease modelling based on possible patient states (susceptible, infected, recovered)
site navigation	Method	Computer Science
six degrees of separation	Experimental finding	Psychology
six sigma	Method	Strategy	Motorola-originated concept of ensuring quality control to a very fine point, by ensuring that parts or other production outputs are manufactured to be within a certain quality range up to 6 times the standard deviation.
situational preparedness	Method	Strategy
skew	Math	Statistics
skin in the game	Ancient Wisdom	Economics	When someone has a stake in the outcome, they are more likely to keep their word in assist its fruition.
slope of a line	Math	Statistics
social contract	Legal precedent	Philosophy	Profoundly impactful document in political philosophy from Jean Jacques Rousseau in 18th c. France, refuting the rights of monarchs to rule the people
Socratic method	Method	Philosophy	Technique of instruction or conversation where the teacher or moderator proceeds by asking the student or pupil a serious of questions, enticing her or him to come up with their own answers to the issues related to the subject at hand.
solipsism
sorting		Math
special relativity	Scientific Law	Science
speech act theory	Theory	Philosophy	British philosopher J.L.Austin's concept that all uses of speech carry a performative aspect.
speed of light (c)	Scientific Law	Science	approx. 300 million meters per second
spread		Statistics
squaring the circle	Unsolved Mystery		A notorious philosophical problem first posed by Plato, the phrase has come to be used to allude to the grandiosity and infeasibility of someone's plans.
standard deviation	Math	Statistics
standing waves	Term
stare decisis	Legal precedent	Law	"It has been decided" — terminology used by a judge or court to indicate that the matter before them has already been decided by a previous ruling.
state of nature	Thought Experiment	Philosophy
status quo	Term	Culture	The way things currently are.
stochastic terrorism	Term	Social psychology
stocks and flows	Model	Systems Theory
Stoicism	Ancient Wisdom	Philosophy
Streisand Effect	Metaphor	Social psychology	When the act of attempting to hide information only makes it more prominently spread, especially via the Internet.
strict father morality			George Lakoff's terminology to describe the conservative worldview.
strict liability		Law	Crimes which have no mens rea requirement, such as rear-ending of another vehicle (where it is always the rear-enders' fault no matter what the circumstances.
subsidy		Economics
success to the successful		Systems theory	A reinforcing loop within complex system — especially economies — wherein the spoils of victory include the means to alter the rules of the game further in the favor of the previous winners.
summum malum	Ancient Wisdom	Politics	ultimate evil — some posit cruelty as this ultimate evil
supply and demand	Model	Economics
supply chain	Term	Economics
sword of Damocles	Ancient Wisdom	Metaphor
symmetric encryption	Term
tabula rasa	Ancient Wisdom	Metaphor	Blank slate
tachyon	Experimental finding	Science	hypothetical particle that travels faster than the speed of light
tangent	Method	Math
tariff	Legal precedent	Economics
tempus edax rerum	Ancient Wisdom	Arts	"Time devours everything." — Ovid
tempus fugit	Ancient Wisdom		Time flies
tempus neminem manet	Ancient Wisdom		time waits for no man
Third Story	Thought Experiment	Philosophy	the story an impartial third-party observer might tell; a version of events any unbiased person could agree on
Thucydides Trap
tilting at windmills	Metaphor	Arts	A reference to the novel Don Quixote, denoting the ongoing pursuit of useless attacks against an implacable enemy. Ineffectual activity undertaken strenuously and loudly.
time dilation	Thought Experiment	Science
time series data	Method	Statistics	A collection of measurements taken over time that create a graph when plotted.
time value of money	Theory	Economics
tipping point	Model	Systems Theory
Tit-for-Tat	Method	Strategy
too many cooks in the kitchen	Metaphor	Culture	A metaphor connoting that too many people are currently involved in the decision-making process.
touchstone	Metaphor	Myth/Metaphor	A black stone once used to judge the purity of gold or silver — now signifying a standard against which something should be judged.
Tower of Babel	Metaphor	Religion	A tale in the book of Genesis in the Bible that purports to explain the origins of different languages, via narrative about God confounding the speech of humans trying to build a tower to reach Him.
trade-offs	Model	Economics
tragedy of the commons	Experimental finding	Economics	An economic term for a situation in which unfettered access to a resource can lead to resource depletion through uncoordinated behavior -- a classic example is overfishing. A commonly-pooled (aka public) resource is overconsumed, but underinvested in.
transitivity	Term	Math
trickle down economics	Method	Economics	Right-wing economics, also known as Reaganomics, supply side economics, fiscal conservatism, tax cut policy, and austerity.
trolly problem	Thought Experiment	Philosophy
turtles all the way down	Theory	Philosophy
twin paradox	Thought Experiment	Science
tyranny of choice	Experimental finding	Systems Theory	The paradoxical effect that having too many options to choose from actually decreases the likelihoof of being able to reach a decision at all.
Unicode	Term	Computers
union	Term	Math	In set theory, a union of sets is a set which consists of all the members of all the sets.
universal law	Philosophy	Philosophy
usury	Term	Economics	The act of charging interest on borrowed money; for thousands of years there have been religous proscriptions against lending money with interest in various societies.
utility	Theory	Philosophy
variance	Math	Statistics	The amount of variation within a data set.
Veil of Ignorance	Model	Philosophy	Philosopher John Rawls' model for making better ethical decisions, in which the decider chooses a course of action based on the predicate that s/he will not know which of the groups or persons affected by the decision they personally would be. This method creates natural incentives to find the fairest outcome for all groups, since the decider doesn't know which group they will "end up in" on the other side of the decision.
Venn Diagram	Model	Math
via negativa	Method	Philosophy	An indirect description of a thing by describing what that thing is not.
Volcker rule	Legal precedent	Economics	Financial rule preventing consumer lending banks from speculative trading in securities for their own profit.
vulnerability	Experimental finding	Psychology
wave function	Scientific Law	Science
wave-particle duality	Experimental finding	Science
wheel of life	Symbol	Religion
when life gives you lemons	Metaphor	Philosophy	You try to make lemonade! Another way of saying, "let's try and make the best of this unfortunate situation."
winner-take-all market		Economics
wisdom of crowds	Model	Social psychology	Derived from the Diversity Prediction Theorem: the average prediction of a group of individuals will be more accurate than the prediction of one average member.
wolves and sheep	Metaphor	Philosophy
wormhole	Theory	Physics	A sort of tunnel formed on the surface of a black hole that may connect two different regions of space
worst case scenario	Model	Systems Theory
zero sum game	Model	Math
z score	Term	Statistics

October 28, 2022

GOTV: Elonely Muskrat hate speech edition

Hate speech is a way of dominating & monopolizing the conversation:

It removes the possibility of polite, congenial dialogue.
No productive discussion can happen until it is removed, b/c one party is only pretending to be there for dialog but is only there for broadcasting.

Hate speech is a weapon being used to shut down political discourse — under the guise of promoting it.

It’s a kind of false flag operation — a strategy of war disguising itself as “legitimate political discourse.”
Putin and the American right-wing are using the exact same tactics — and this is no accident. It’s not a coincidence Elonely Muskrat is carrying water for Russian dictators and oligarchs — the right-wing as an ideological movement is now global.

It’s also no accident this whole Twitter takeover drama is happening just before the mid-terms. The right-wing needs to inject some juice into the splintering base, some of whom are wavering as the actual (intentionally) obscured vision of the GOP leaks out (i.e. destroy government altogether).

September 7, 2022

Conflict Management

It is an an age of acute political polarization. Understanding how we got to this place of hyper partisanship is exceedingly helpful for peace of mind, but the question still remains: how do we get out of it? How do we collectively evolve, to see the commonalities we share as being more important than the differences we cling to? One potential place to start is learning the art of better conflict management.

Humans aren’t natively wired for healthy conflict management — in fact, we’ve evolved with a primary skillset geared towards pretty much the opposite approach: group combat, physical violence, and social dominance for maintaining strict social hierarchies. Much of the story of the civilized world is about collectively learning how to curb those base instincts, and the ways in which we’ve utterly failed to do so — leading to wars, genocides, and unspeakable acts of horror from the micro all the way to the macro scale, again and again, from generation to generation for thousands of years of recorded human history.

The psychology of conflict

The work of many philosophers and academics leaves us with the popular impression that humans are essentially rational beings, making logical choices between alternatives based on the careful weighing of evidence, pros, and cons. Not so! Our brains are riddled with cognitive biases, mental distortions, and habits of logical fallacy we fall for again and again.

It turns out that we are pretty poor scientists in our personal lives (and often in our professional ones as well). Instead of approaching the world with an open mind and leaving room for the possibility that our ideas and assumptions may be wrong, we frequently do quite the opposite — we filter incoming information against our pre-existing convictions and keep the stuff that matches, while tossing out evidence that doesn’t agree with what we already believe. Instead of being open to what reality tries to show us, we engage with the world from a place of motivated reasoning; we expect reality to conform to what we expect of it, instead of the other way around.

As a result, when we encounter people or ideas that disagree with our own preconceived notions, we have a very hard time conceiving of the idea that their way of thinking might have any merit at all. Moreover, those people are in the same cognitive boat that we are — they’re just as convinced that we are wrong as we are that they’re the ones not thinking straight. It’s a recipe for terrible conflict management, lurking around every corner and every interaction — hundreds or even thousands of times per day for each of us.

How to improve conflict management

So how do we get better at this, given the nature of our brains to get hooked into escalating a situation rather than de-escalating it? Is it hopeless, or can we work towards improving our conflict management skills?

All hope is not lost! A number of disciplines from coaching to leadership to non-violence communication offer various types of approaches to upping our game in reducing the conflicts that seemingly rage all around us.

One such approach comes from a resource that manages to be both classic business canon and yet undersung in the general population: Dale Carnegie’s seminal work, How to Win Friends and Influence People. He suggests essentially turning your brain’s primal instinct on its head: instead of approaching every interaction with the mindframe of “I’m right and you’re wrong — let me tell you why,” Carnegie suggests practicing finding the kernel or essence of something you both actually agree on first.

Even if there’s no obvious space of overlap in your ideas, you can still take pains to truly listen to what the other person has to say and find something of value in it, and communicate your appreciation to that person. Or, simply ask them open-ended questions about their perspective and encourage them to open up further. Here are some examples of phrases you might use to let the other person know you’ve truly heard them and appreciate their thoughts:

That’s very interesting! Can you tell me more?
I think I see what you’re saying — would you explain that a bit further?
You’re right about X. I hadn’t thought about it that way before.
It sounds like we have X in common. Could we dig in to that a bit more?
I can understand why you’d feel that way.
That touches on something similar in my experience — can I tell you about it?

Only after you’ve found some initial common ground and acknowledged the validity of the other person’s perspective — even if you don’t agree with it — do you consider pivoting to bring up points of disagreement. Sometimes the essence of conflict management is simply to avoid wading into conflict in the first place, by heading it off at the pass.

Validating another person’s point of view is an extremely powerful way to open up a space of dialogue. It leverages an age-old human guideline for healthy interaction: the concept of reciprocity. When we treat people with fundamental respect — the way we ourselves hope to be treated — we have already improved our skills in conflict management by defusing potential heated arguments before they get started. And once they do, we can practice falling back to a place of basic listening and validation before attempting to head back into conflict territory.

May 26, 2022

End mass shootings now

Freedom is freedom from the fear of death.

Freedom is freedom from fearing you’ll be gunned down at school.

Freedom is freedom from fear your kids won’t come home from school.

Freedom is freedom from fear of going to the grocery store.

Freedom is freedom from senseless violence.

Freedom is freedom from murderous rampages replayed night after night.

Freedom is freedom from domestic warfare.

Freedom is freedom from weapons of warfare in our communities, in our churches, in our schools, in our stores, on our playing fields, on our streets.

Freedom is freedom from injustice.

Freedom is freedom from inaction.

More public displays of empathy please pic.twitter.com/Rf0itRHCrB
— barb dybwad (@doctorparadox) May 27, 2022

May 17, 2022

Great Replacement Theory

Great Replacement Theory is a conspiracy theory animating the radical right wing that claims non-white immigrants are being brought to the U.S. and the west to “replace” white voters with their woke political and cultural agenda. Those who believe this white supremacist ideology see routine immigration policy as a white genocide and extinction of the white race. They also point to low birth rates among white europeans and the promotion of multiculturalism, or “wokeness,” as responsible for the alleged effects.

Promoters of this derivative of Nazi ideology (the claim is that Jews are responsible for this immigration plot) claim that the United States must close its borders immediately to immigration. Many advocate isolationism (“America First!”), white nationalism (and/or forms of nationalism more broadly), and claim that violence may be necessary to keep America under the control of white men.

🚨 🚨

NEW WHITEBOARD

The racist terrorism in Buffalo is a direct extension of the long history of violence & propaganda used to advance white supremacy.

And…that’s exactly what those censoring history and banning books don’t want people to know. It all ties together.

WATCH: pic.twitter.com/uwiTjKS88K
— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) May 16, 2022

History of Great Replacement Theory

The term “Great Replacement” was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2011 book “Le Grand Remplacement.” According to Camus, the alleged replacement is a result of the European elites intentionally allowing mass immigration and promoting multiculturalism to undermine national identity and traditional Western culture.

The Great Replacement Theory has been widely discredited and criticized by experts, as it is based on misinformation, selective data, and biased interpretations. It is important to note that this theory often fuels xenophobia, bigotry, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiments, and has been linked to a number of far-right extremist attacks worldwide.

Demographic changes in Western countries are driven by a complex interplay of factors such as economic migration, political instability, globalization, and changing birth rates. These factors are not part of any orchestrated plot, but rather reflect broader social, economic, and political trends. Unfortunately, it’s in the interest of the right-wing to keep its rabid base riled up — and the Great Replacement Theory conspiracy is an effective tool for generating anger and injecting vitriol into the broader political discourse.

March 4, 2022

Ukraine War and Russia resources 🇺🇦

Some of us have been boning up on this topic for about 6 years already, while others are just tuning in now based on the horrors of recent events. It can be overwhelming to come in cold, so here — don’t go it alone! Take this:

Putin’s war against the west

President Biden “declassified” an intelligence analysis many of us had arrived at some time ago: Russian president Vladimir Putin is a cruel revanchist leader who will stop at nothing to claw out a larger legacy before he dies. His goal is nothing less than reconstituting the former Soviet Union and restoring the “glory” of the Russian empire of yesteryear. And for some reason he thinks the world community is going to let him get away with his delusional fever dreams of conquest — as if fever dreams of Mongol domination are still de rigueur.

The attacks on the 2016 election and on the American Capitol in 2021 are related — both are Russian hybrid warfare operations. Russia also is the cold beating heart of the right-wing authoritarianism movement around the world, via financial, political, psychological, economic, and other means of government and regulatory capture.

Putin has hated democracy for a long time — since before the Berlin Wall fell where he was stationed in East Berlin as a young KGB agent, taking the news hard. Now, he has many fifth column confederates aiding and abetting him from within the United States — a number of them brazenly, and openly. It is getting harder and harder for those treasonous types to “hide out” in the folds of disinformation, misinformation, and plausible deniability. The play is being called — and everyone will need to decide if they’re for democracy or authoritarianism.

Media Resources

Twitter Lists

January 24, 2022

Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians, a Summary

Professor Altemeyer has studied authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality since 1966. He first published a refinement of Theodor Adorno’s work on authoritarian personalities, known as the Right-Wing Authoritarian Scale in 1981. In 2006, Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians was slated to be his last work pending retirement — but in 2020 a new work co-authored with Watergate whistleblower John Dean titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers aimed to warn America about the dangers of Donald Trump’s personality to unleash the very worst in the very worst sorts of individuals.

Meanwhile Bob has made The Authoritarians available free of charge here, and I absolutely encourage you to read it — it’s fascinating stuff and he’s an entertaining as well as informative writer. In this post I’ll do my best to summarize the main points of the book, because I know people are busy and not everyone has time to read a whole book much less scrape together hours to volunteer and do activist work.

Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians

Dr. Altemeyer defines authoritarianism as “something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up between themselves.” Followers submit blindly to the leaders and give them too much free rein to do anti-democratic, brutal, and tyrannical things. Power corrupts absolutely, and power seems to corrupt authoritarians most of all.

He classifies the authoritarians into three primary groups:

Authoritarian followers — typically this group follows the established authorities in their society, including government officials, clergy and traditional religious leaders, business leaders, and self-appointed gurus of all stripes. They tend to have a “Daddy and Mommy know best” approach to the government, believing that authorities are above the law. Psychologically, authoritarian followers exhibit a high degree of submission to authorities they accept as legitimate, high levels of aggression in the name of those authorities (if so called upon), and a high degree of conventionalism and conformity. They tend to be bigots, with prejudices against many types of groups.
Authoritarian leaders — tend to be Social Dominators, who long to control people and affect others’ lives. They are overall highly prejudiced and bigoted, do not believe in the American value of equality, and feel justified in wielding great power over society with little qualification and even less self-reflection. They believe the world is divided into wolves and sheep, and they have no qualms fooling the sheep into opening the pasture gate so they can eat. “Might makes right” is their personal motto.
Double Highs — about 10% of any given sample score highly on both the social dominance test and the right-wing authoritarian scale, which is odd given the social dominator’s otherwise reluctance to be submissive. They exhibit extra prejudice and extra hostility — beyond either the social dominators or the RWAs. They tend to be the “religious” social dominators, who had a fundamentalist upbringing, or had a conversion experience as an adult (George W. Bush, e.g.) and now tend to believe in some form of Strict Father Morality.

More traits of authoritarian followers

They tend to feel more endangered in potentially threatening situations that most people do (think: Dick Cheney‘s descent into bunker mentality after 9/11)
More afraid than most people; they tend to have overactive amygdalas
Were raised by their parents to be afraid of others — both parents and children have told researchers so
More likely to issue threats than low authoritarians
Most orthodox — were raised fundamentalist and are highly repressed
Most hardline
Believe “whatever I want is right”
Paradoxically, want to “be normal” very badly — they tend to get tugged by the people around them

Authoritarian aggression

Authoritarians prefer not to have fair fights out in the open — they tend to aggress when they believe their hostility is welcomed by established authority, or supports established authority. They also often aggress when they have an obvious physical advantage over the target — making women, children, and others unable to defend themselves as ideal targets. These cowards have the gall to feel morally superior to the innocent victims they assault in an ongoing asymmetrical warfare between supremacists and marginalized groups.

To make matters worse, authoritarians do their dirty deeds in the shadows and scream bloody murder at anyone who dares try and expose their dark secrets to the light. Their theatrical and performative self-righteousness is just an act to avoid accountability and responsibility for what they do — even unto themselves.

Moreover, authoritarians are extra punitive against lawbreakers they don’t like (though exceedingly permissive for lawbreakers they *do* like, which is infuriatingly hypocritical), because they believe fervently in the value of punishment. Many advocate child corporal punishment — spanking and worse — for children as young as 1 year old. Authoritarian followers tended to report feelings of “secret pleasure” when hearing of the misfortunes of high school classmates who had misbehaved, believing they got what they deserved in life.

It would be accurate to think of authoritarians as “little volcanoes of hostility,” almost heat-seeking their way into authority-approved ways to erupt and release their pent-up anger. Many of them do not, and will not ever realize that their fundamentalist upbringing has sadly left their brains underdeveloped, and ill-equipped to navigate the modern world with its rapid changes, accelerating inequality, advancing climate change, and political instability.

Lethal Union

When a social dominator becomes an authoritarian leader, and leads his authoritarian followers down malevolent roads from informing to threatening to vigilanteism, researchers refer to this state of affairs as a “lethal union.” It’s a highly dangerous and volatile time for a democracy, one warranting caution and vigilance from concerned citizens.

Throughout history, these are the situations that tend to devolve further into aggression, political violence, civil war, genocide, and worse. We need to be very damn careful about who we elect as our leaders — we cannot allow our government to be captured by special interests and the narrow, quixotic delusions of old billionaires outshining daddy and staving off death.

More books about authoritarians

If you’ve already read Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians, or you’re just looking for more resources on authoritarianism — here’s a list to get started:

Authoritarianism Books

More resources on authoritarianism

Essential thinkers on authoritarian personality theory ↗

The authoritarian personality is characterized by excessive strictness and a propensity to exhibit oppressive behavior towards perceived subordinates.

Authoritarianism Dictionary ↗

This dictionary collects definitions and charts the rise of language, ideology, tactics, and historical movements of American authoritarians.

Koup Klux Klan: The authoritarian movement trying to take over America ↗

We are facing an unprecedented crisis of democracy under attack by a roster of extremists, hardliners, theocrats, plutocrats, and others of their ilk.

January 19, 2022

Fake Detection

How to detect fake from real

It is going to become increasingly more difficult to discern from fact from fiction, here in this world that seemingly quickly flipped from a world of The Enlightenment to a world of dark disinformation. From artificial intelligence to vast propaganda machines, from deep fakes to fake lives — it’s going to require more from us to be able to detect what’s real.

Already we can’t rely on old cues, signposts, and tropes anymore. We’re less credulous about credentials, and trust isn’t automatic based on caste, title, or familiar status markers.

Go slow and look for mimics

Here’s one key to more accurate reality detection: take more time to spot the fake. Don’t judge too quickly, because it can take time to weed out the fakesters and the hucksters — some are decent mimics and can fool people who are in a hurry, not paying much attention, or attracted to some irrelevant other quality about the ersatz knockoff and thus forms an affinity with them based on something else entirely. Some drink the Kool-Aid for various reasons.

Clues of fraud

Those who cling absurdly to abstract symbols are often fakes. And in general, any folks who feel like they are just trying a little bit too hard might be fake. Then, of course, there are the full-on zealots and religious nutbags. These theocrats are definitely faux compassionate Jesus-lovers. What better cloak than the robes of a religious man (or, less frequently, woman)? It’s the perfect disguise.

No wonder so many child abusers hide out in churches of all kinds, from famously the Catholic to the more recently-outed (though not surprising) Evangelical Southern Baptist Church. No one will ever suspect them, or want to confront them if they do. Plus, they have Democrats to absurdly try and pin the blame on repeatedly, despite a lack of a shred of evidence.

Emotion

Disinformation at scale

More about propaganda

More on the conservative mentality:

National anti-communist paranoia

Army-McCarthy hearings

Historical influence of McCarthyism

Authoritarian personality studies

Cluster A personality disorders

Cluster B personality disorders

Cluster C personality disorders

Effects and treatment

The modern scapegoat

The illusion of control

Dealing with scapegoating

Defense mechanism examples

Defense mechanism vs. Coping strategies

Top Mental Models for Thinkers

Top Models and Concepts

The psychology of conflict

How to improve conflict management

History of Great Replacement Theory

Putin’s war against the west

Further reading:

Media Resources

Twitter Lists

Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians

More traits of authoritarian followers

Authoritarian aggression

Lethal Union

More books about authoritarians

More resources on authoritarianism

How to detect fake from real

Go slow and look for mimics

Clues of fraud