Category: Learning

I just want to select NO
The worst YES/NO interface design I’ve seen. We can create a nonviolent culture with the first questions we ask, being willing to hear an answer that’s polarized or ambivalent, loud or quiet.

Why someone complained about the review you posted to Goodreads
Their reason wasn’t as complicated as they made it sound. They say it’s too short. Or too long. What are they really complaining about? What don’t they like about your review?

If you don’t know if it’s a joke or a lie, what’s it called?
There is a word. When they issue statements halfway between jokes and lies, and they joke about it being a lie and lie about it being a joke, there’s a word for that.

Atheist-theist encounters
If you’re pretty sure there’s no god, when may you tell theists they’re wrong? Sometimes knowledge is best cultivated through personal encounters rather than intellectual demands. We see each other, and we’ll also know the world.

Moral analysis of what is ‘at stake in this story’
Naomi Kanakia on discussing novels. How to discuss a book itself and also let our learning transcend the book? To see the book as art, and to see it as a tool for our growth?

We are the book we’re talking about
And we are what’s at stake in truth-telling. If the interlocutor opposes me because of who I am, will they be impressed that I read a book? No. Even if it is a book they have heard of? No.

Discarding a category that does not serve
‘Why Fish Don’t Exist’ is a book that intrigues me. When the category no longer has adequate explanatory value, the category must be discarded or deemphasized, and happiness must be found somewhere else.

The wake doesn’t drive the boat
Deciding where to go next. When we don’t like our direction, we blame it on our wake. Much of my behavior is nothing but wake. But I keep hearing the wake can’t do this.

The Oracle answers tough questions
Standing there and meeting people where they are. All in a day’s work. The Oracle can speak at length for which the questioner doesn’t want to stand. Or at brevity upon which the Questioner realizes they could’ve written it.

AI is trolling us
Are we prepared to tell it to go away? It’ll spread out the tarot cards, ask you to turn some over, read them for you. You picked the cards. It wants to blame you for the options it spread out.

The Legend of Canselation
Arise, Dame Canselda! Arise, Sir Canseld! Only they who are crucified can be resurrected. Only they who die can be born to eternal life. Only a canseled program can rake in a million dollars.

Two things ‘cancel culture’ refers to
On ‘speaking first’ and the meaning of ‘engagement’. You can decline to “engage” online. Think quietly somewhere else. That’s not “cancel culture.” Rewarding someone for being wrong serves no one’s interests.