1. Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon:When we notice something new, like an unusual word, we start seeing it more often. It feels like it's become more common but really we're just more alert to it, and we confuse our attention with reality itself. Hence conspiracy theories.
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2. Ostrich Effect:We often try to avoid info that we fear will cause us stress. Thus bills and work emails remain unopened, bank balances remain unchecked. This is counterproductive because ignoring a problem doesn't eliminate the problem or your anxiety; it only prolongs them.
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4. Warnock's Dilemma:Online content that provokes people gets more engagement than content people merely agree with, which incentivizes content creators to be provocative. So much is alarming and enraging only because so much is trying to get your attention.
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5. Google Scholar Effect:We all get our answers from whatever tops the search results, so these results come to dominate a topic, muscling out unluckier viewpoints. Google has trapped us in an orgy of intellectual incest where everyone is drawing from the same tiny meme-pool.
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6. Paradox Of Unanimity:Researchers Gunn et al. (2016) found that when eyewitnesses unanimously agreed on the identity of suspects, they were more likely to be wrong.The more people agree, the less likely they are thinking for themselves.Therefore, beware of consensuses.
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7. Epistemic Humility:Instead of trying to be right, try to be less wrong. Avoiding idiocy is easier than achieving genius, and by beginning from the position that you don't know enough (which you don't), you'll gain more awareness of your blindspots and become harder to fool.
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- favorite, epistemic humility, bias, rationality,

8. Mimetic Desire:Craving is contagious; watching other people want a thing makes us want it too. It's why ads are so effective. But it puts us all into unnecessary competition as we fool ourselves into chasing what others are chasing simply because they are chasing it
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11. Veblen Goods:We often attach value to things simply because they're hard to get. People will be more attracted to a painting if it costs $3 million than if it costs $3. The price becomes a feature of the product in that it allows the buyer to signal affluence to others.
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12. Peter Principle:People in a hierarchy such as a business or government will be promoted until they suck at their jobs, at which point they will remain where they are. As a result, the world is filled with people who suck at their jobs.
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13. Meme Theory:An ideology parasitizes the mind, changing the host’s behavior so they spread it to other people. Therefore, a successful ideology (the only kind we hear about) is not configured to be true; it is configured only to be easily transmitted and easily believed.
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17. The Liar's Dividend:Teaching people about deepfakes and other disinfo doesn't make them skeptical of falsehoods as much as it makes them skeptical of reality. Amid such confusion, they default to believing what they want to, discounting anything they don't like as disinfo.
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18. Shibboleth:An absurd ideological belief is a form of tribal signaling. It signifies that one considers their ideology more important than truth, reason, or sanity. To one's allies, WB$wombat$check$this$function(this) is an oath of unwavering loyalty. To one's enemies, it is a threat display.
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21. Law of Triviality:A company needs a nuclear reactor and a bike shed. Few workers understand reactors, but all understand sheds, so the shed becomes the focus of debate as everyone tries to enact their vision.Projects that require the least attention tend to get the most.
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- attention, decision-making, 000 Inbox/OneNote Export/Project Management,
- [note::Also called Bike-shedding]

25. Purity Spiral:Members of political tribes inevitably begin competing with their fellows to be the most ideologically pure. The constant one-upmanship toward moral superiority causes the whole group to gradually become more extreme. E.g. Maoist China, Twitter echo-chambers.
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30: Brandolini's Law (aka the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle): It takes a lot more energy to refute bullshit than to produce it. Hence, the world is full of unrefuted bullshit.
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31. Algorithmic Blindspots:We find growth while searching for other things. Algorithms give us exactly what we want on demand, so we never need to search, and never find what we never knew we needed.If you wish to grow, defy the robots' recommendations.
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- serendipity, information diet, creativity,
- [note::i.e. serendipity is essential for innovation (innovations come from taking and remixing ideas from other fields, where the purpose of studying those fields is never quite clear)]

33. The Two-Minute Rule:If a task would take less than two minutes, do it immediately. This is because adding the task to your mental to-do list, keeping it in your memory, and managing the anxiety of not having done it will take far more effort than just doing it now.
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34. Promethean Gap:Technology is outpacing wisdom; we're changing the world faster than we can adapt to it. Lagging ever more behind accelerating progress, we're increasingly unable to foresee the effects of what we create. We're amassing the power of gods, yet we remain apes.
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- [note::This reminds me of a Tim Urban piece about how unfortunate it is that out minds run on essentially the same hardware (our brain) as it did 10,000 years ago.]

35. Information-Action Ratio:The mark of useful info is that it makes us act differently. Most info we consume doesn't make us act differently; we just passively graze on it like cattle before defecating it undigested.Stop mindless scrolling and seek out info that changes you.
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- [note::I should put this on my wall. This is probably one of the most important things I've been thinking about in the last couple of months and is why I'm so currently focused on designing a system that enables me to capture, resurface, and utilize the ideas I come across.
Reminds me of an article I read a couple years back with a salient question: "Of all the books you've read in the past year, how many of the things you learned did you actually use at some point in your life?" My answer to that question made me realize how much time I spend consuming things, but not actually using the information to improve my life, behavior, etc.]

38. Tilting At Windmills:An online stranger doesn't know you; all they have are a few vague impressions of you, too meager to form anything but a phantasm. So when they attack "you", they're really just attacking their own imagination, and there is no need to take it personally.
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- attention, debate,
- [note::I really like this framing. Though, perhaps this could be used to jutify engaging in unproductive online discussions. Nonetheless, a good perspective to keep in mind.]

39. Principle Of Humanity: Every single person is exactly what you would be if you were them. This includes your political opponents. So instead of dismissing them as evil or stupid, maybe seek to understand the circumstances that led them to their conclusions.
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- [note::Love this! Didn't realize there was a name for it. I often like to keep this in mind when thinking about different political groups in the U.S.]

40. Empty Name:We can be convinced that a concept is real by the mere fact that it has a name, but the world is full of names for things that aren't real (e.g. Batman). As such, assume nothing is true just because it has a name (including every concept in this megathread!)
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- [note::Good meta-perspective to keep in mind]