We tend to think of children’s brains as yet to be fully developed versions of adult brains (as a father of two small kids, I can confirm that it definitely feels like this). This hour-long interview with psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik gave me a new perspective. Children’s brains have some unique capabilities that fade in adults and that artificial intelligence can learn from. Newsletter writer’s adult mind: blown. Listen to it now.

I don’t think you need to become a superforecaster. However, knowing how to make good guesstimates is a valuable skill, and this article has some good rules to follow.

It’s usually a good idea to start running when someone wants to tell you about a formula for living the best life you could possibly live. It’s worth making an exception for this one, though. 1. Because it’s well argued. 2. Because combining mirrored reciprocation with compound interest is not your usual carpe diem type of bullshittery. 3. Because what’s not to love about an ode to generalism and multidisciplinary thinking.

In this podcast episode, you’ll understand new things about Covid, science, disinformation, herd behaviours and authoritarianism, but the biggest insights are on the meta-level: Ezra Klein takes you inside the mind of one of the great generalist thinkers of our time, Zeynep Tufekci.

Here’s a rule of thumb I use when evaluating information from a field I know little about: Trust the people who doubt. The Correspondent’s «Numeracy correspondent» wrote a beautiful ode to doubting and explains why people who doubt tend to make better decisions.

I’d love to say otherwise, but I plead guilty. I invest too little time (and empathy) in really trying to understand people who hold opinions that differ from mine. And of course, I’m not alone. It’s easier to argue against and even easier to write off somebody else’s views than to try to understand what they are based on. That’s what this piece is about. Key passage: «A dare for the next time you’re in discussion with someone you disagree with: Don’t try to ‹win›. Don’t try to convince anyone of your viewpoint. Don’t score points by mocking them to your peers. Instead try to ‹lose›. Hear them out. Ask them to convince you and mean it.»

A podcast from the very loved crew at «This American Life». This podcast asks the question why, although we always discuss and argue with people who have different opinions than we have, we never really change our minds. And if, rarely, we do, why that happens.

(Actually, in the process of choosing this link for the Weekly Filet, I first wanted to share a different link; a video showing breathtaking, rare footage of postwar Berlin. But then I changed my mind. Or, as the great spoken word artist Taylor Mali says in one of his most famous poems: «Changing your mind is one of the best ways of figuring out whether or not you still have one.»

Smart essay on connecting the dots and why predicting the present is nearly as hard as predicting the future.