by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jul 18, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Pseudoscience
Defense of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop offers case study on how to sell snake oil This week, Gwyneth Paltrow’s high-profile lifestyle and e-commerce site, Goop, gave birth to a beautiful gift to the Internet-and it wasn’t a moon-powered vagina egg that...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jul 16, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Science
A nice treat I stumbled upon this Sunday summer...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jul 16, 2017 | Cognitive Bias, Critical Thinking
The Scout vs.Soldier Mindset (Motivated Reasoning) I’ve wanted to write my own article here about what Julia Galef has written and spoken about the Scout vs.Soldier Mindset but I can’t do much better than this article here: Why do some of us have better...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jul 11, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Science
Even when proof exists that the moon landing was a hoax, why do school textbooks continue to glorify the Apollo mission? Patrick Germain’s answer: It has been suggested that Stanley Kubrick, the truly gifted director who was responsible for such classics as...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jul 8, 2017 | Alternative Medicine, Critical Thinking, Pseudoscience
“The very concept of alternative medicine exists to create a double standard where the rules of science and evidence are stood on their head specifically to manufacture the result that is desired by cranks, charlatans, snake-oil salesmen, and self-proclaimed...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jul 6, 2017 | Critical Thinking
The Fact/Opinion Distinction When debating ethics and other controversial topics, one frequently hears the claim “That’s just your opinion.” It is a pernicious claim, devoid of clear meaning, and it should be consigned to the flames – or so I...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jun 20, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Education
The Illustrated Guide to a PhD: 12 Simple Pictures That Will Put the Daunting Degree into Perspective Matthew Might, a computer science professor at the University of Utah, writes: “Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is....
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jun 19, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Skepticism
Why You Can Never Argue with Conspiracy Theorists Alex Jones is not the only guy making a career out of conspiracy theories. They are everywhere on the internet and here’s why you have no choice but to ignore...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jun 11, 2017 | Cognitive Bias, Critical Thinking
10 Problems With How We Think By nature, human beings are illogical and irrational. For most of our existence, survival meant thinking quickly, not methodically. Making a life-saving decision was more important than making a 100% accurate one, so the human brain...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jun 11, 2017 | Behavior, Critical Thinking
The five universal laws of human stupidity In 1976, a professor of economic history at the University of California, Berkeley published an essay outlining the fundamental laws of a force he perceived as humanity’s greatest existential threat: Stupidity. Stupid...
