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...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jun 9, 2017 | Critical Thinking
The Toxoplasma Of Rage “Nobody makes an IRC channel for no reason. Who are we doing this versus?” – topic of #slatestarcodex I. Some old news I only just heard about: PETA is offering to pay the water bills for needy Detroit families if (and only if)...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jun 6, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Irrational Thinking
When I post some article or video on FaceBook about GMOs being safe, Homeopathy being a fraud, Chiropractic being pseudoscience, Gluten sensitivity being an imagined condition, or anything else from my list I invariably get people who disagree with me and instead of...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | May 3, 2017 | Cognitive Bias, Critical Thinking, Irrational Thinking
Wow,… this is arguably one of the very best explanations of why we believe what we believe and perhaps more importantly why it is so hard for us to change our minds. It’s long for The Oatmeal but it is well worth it. You’re not going to believe what...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Apr 27, 2017 | Critical Thinking
This is an awesome info graphic of the baloney detection kit. The Baloney Detection Kit Sandwich (Infographic) For a class project, a pair of 11th grade physics students created the infographic shown below, inspired by Michael Shermer’s Baloney Detection Kit : a...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Apr 19, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Science
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by J. Jerrald Hayes | Apr 17, 2017 | Cognitive Bias, Critical Thinking
Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds In 1975, researchers at Stanford invited a group of undergraduates to take part in a study about suicide. They were presented with pairs of suicide notes. In each pair, one note had been composed by a random individual, the other...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Apr 17, 2017 | Critical Thinking, The Media
Only You, Not Facebook Or Google, Can Stop Fake News Facebook has made some efforts, however ineffective, to stop the plague of fake news on their platform. Now Google is trying to stem the tide of false information online, along with their past attempts to shut down...
