CxD #212: A phase of unique Stupidity + Antidote Map

Future, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. ~ Ambrose Bierce 

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Next Sunday, May 1st, cxd.community book club will disucss the first 200 pages of The Books of Jacob. It’s not too late to get your copy and join us!

Get your copy here.

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I highlighted a staggeringly large amount of this article about the erosion of civic trust. Source = Atlantic May 2022 issue.

Since the tower fell, debates of all kinds have grown more and more confused. The most pervasive obstacle to good thinking is confirmation bias, which refers to the human tendency to search only for evidence that confirms our preferred beliefs. Even before the advent of social media, search engines were supercharging confirmation bias, making it far easier for people to find evidence for absurd beliefs and conspiracy theories, such as that the Earth is flat and that the U.S. government staged the 9/11 attacks. But social media made things much worse.

From the September 2018 issue: The cognitive biases tricking your brain

The most reliable cure for confirmation bias is interaction with people who don’t share your beliefs. They confront you with counterevidence and counterargument. John Stuart Mill said, “He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that,” and he urged us to seek out conflicting views “from persons who actually believe them.” People who think differently and are willing to speak up if they disagree with you make you smarter, almost as if they are extensions of your own brain. People who try to silence or intimidate their critics make themselves stupider, almost as if they are shooting darts into their own brain.

In the 20th century, America built the most capable knowledge-producing institutions in human history. In the past decade, they got stupider en masse.

This article is worth your full attention this week.

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Consider Cal Newport’s book Digitial Minimalism to be a powerful antidote.

Digital Minimalism

Mindmap for subscribers below 👇