The Art of Thinking (Differently)

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All The Different Ways Your Life Could Have Turned Out

When we imagine different lives we could have lived, we tend to think about decisions we made, and roads not taken. What is far less appreciated, Morgan Housel elaborates in this podcast episode, are random events that could have changed everything. I’m fascinated by the experiment Housel describes – and cautiously curious about trying it myself: He wrote a detailed description of the life circumstances of his 20-year-old self. He then gave that description to ChatGPT and asked it to write 50 stories of how that 20-year-old’s life would likely continue. He got 50 versions of how his life could have been, including some shocking ones.

From Weekly Filet #514, in January 2025.

Appreciate everything endlessly.

As we anxiously await the world’s scariest coin toss, I thought we might as well start with something completely different. Something that will make you feel lighter, even joyful. This is such a wonderful, charming talk about appreciating the small things, finding beauty and wonder in unexpected places. «I highly encourage you to go down all the rabbit holes. […] I just want us to appreciate everything endlessly.» (It starts a bit slow and confusing, but trust me, it’s so worth it.)

From Weekly Filet #502, in November 2024.

Why do people believe true things?

For most of human history, even the wealthiest people lived in absolute poverty by today’s standards. What if we applied the same logic to human knowledge? This essay makes the case that truth is not the default when people form beliefs. «Relative to a modern scientific worldview, almost everything people have ever believed about the world they are not in close perceptual contact with has been completely wrong.» Thus, the author argues, we shouldn’t be puzzled by how people remain ignorant of basic facts or are mislead by disinformation. «The deep question of social epistemology – the genuine puzzle – is not why people hold false beliefs. It is why people sometimes form true beliefs.»

From Weekly Filet #500, in August 2024.

Asking the wrong questions

When thinking about the future, I like to come back to this classic from 2017. We’re not that bad at predicting the future, we simply predict the wrong things. Contains this wonderful quote: «And yet, despite predicting half of our world, as a father in the 1950s he could not imagine why his daughter — my mother — wanted to work.»

From Weekly Filet #375, in December 2021.

Questions

Here’s a simple, yet intriguing exercise: Make a list of questions you find interesting and would like to find answers to. I stumbled upon this list by Patrick Collison, co-founder of fintech giant Stripe. I happen to find some of his questions interesting myself, but that’s beside the point. Have a look and maybe you feel inclined to make your own list. I remembered that I had made one a while ago, I think I’ll make a new one to kick off the new year.

From Weekly Filet #375, in December 2021.

Calibrate your scout mindset

Julia Galef’s book «The Scout Mindset» is one of my favourites this year so far. In it, she makes the case for a «scout mindset» that strives to constantly refine its map, rather than the all too common «soldier mindset» that defends entrenched beliefs. One key skill of the scout mindset she discusses is the ability to have the appropriate amount of confidence in your beliefs. On her website, she offers a quick test you can take to see how well calibrated you are. Take the test here

From Weekly Filet #346, in May 2021.

Make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be.

Carefully curated recommendations on what to read, watch and listen to. For nerds and changemakers who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!».

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