Tools for thinking about things

[biaggio]

In today's world raw knowledge has gone down in value because, to a very large degree, information has been democratized. Looking up facts is a google search away. Far more valuable is "higher order" (synthesized?) knowledge (knowing a theorem vs having internalized a proof technique that lets you recover the result with little effort).

I thought it would be cool if we shared catalogs of "tools for thinking" materials. I'll start, off the top of my head:
1. The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking About the Law - http://www.thelegalanalyst.com/.
Very well written and accessible explanation of some of the ways for thinking about legal questions. I never imagined I could enjoy reading about law; turns out it can incredibly stimulating even for an outsider.

2. Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation - https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Aut ... 321455363
I was mind blown when I first read this book in my undergraduate studies. The theory of regular languages is very accessible and yet these results form a microcosm of theoretical computer science. The book also covers more complex models of computation and touches both complexity and computability.

What's the enlightment I'm supposed to attain after studying automata? https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/a/14818

3. The Feynman Lectures on Physics - https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

I wasn't up to the whole thing (I read volume 1 and parts of volume 2 in undergrad studies), and I must say that while the books helped me conceptualize and see the big picture, I would find myself still struggling once I went and tried to do actual problems. The exposition is fantastic. I know there are proper physics grads on this forum---they might have a different impression.


I have many other books that I really liked but I'm not sure that they score as high as the ones listed above. Anything goes: politics, medicine, workplace/career, economics, finance, you name it. Curious to see what you post.

[candide]

Some books I have read that might match the description:

Metaphors we Live By. Lakoff.
Godel, Escher, Bach. Hofstadler.
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Fuller.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Pirsig.

A few web entries:

Melting Asphalt, specifically the piece Crony Beliefs
https://meltingasphalt.com/crony-beliefs/

The Uruk Series
https://samzdat.com/the-uruk-series/

Trying to See Through: A Unified Theory of Nerddom
https://www.gwern.net/docs/philosophy/e ... rough.html

I also already ported over my thoughts about it here:
viewtopic.php?p=257494#p257494

Lastly, what I have linked to the most (perhaps other than ERE, though even then perhaps it has pride of place). Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths. . . from a site called Meaningness:
https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths

ETA: It looks like I interpreted the question a bit differently than everyone else, and I'll fess up to having mis-interpreted it. Nonetheless, what I have here shows what kind of motivated reasoning people do in real life. So these are all tied together by being thinking about thinking. . . they are just not analysis about analysis.

[jacob]

Useful for knowing where and how(*) you are in your thinking:
https://metamoderna.org/what-is-the-mhc/
http://onesystemonevoice.com/resources/ ... 5B1$5D.pdf

(*) That is, the difference between focusing on facts, knowledge, or wisdom and everything in between and beyond (or behind).

[Campitor]

How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg (Professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard and an MFA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins).

[jacob]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_ ... _quadrants

[simplex]

My two favourites are:

Mindware by R.E. Nisbett

"Algorithms to live by" by B. Christian and T. Griffiths

Mindware is more about "how to think", and Algorithms is more about "how to solve changing, not specified, messy real world problems as good as possible".

[mountainFrugal]

Super Thinking (mental models): https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/ ... r-thinking

Both open source books by MIT prof Sanjoy Mahajan---
Street Fighting Mathematics: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/26090 (mathematical approximations)
The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/26055 (dealing with complexity)

[Western Red Cedar]

Michael Sandel's free course on justice is a nice, intro to philosophy. It is probably a bit basic for much of the audience here, but a good resource for those interested in political philosophy.

Here is the first episode of 12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

[guitarplayer]

Some appealing suggestions to my mind!

I appreciate the ERE book has not been added due to modesty or obviousness, but newer forum users will find a link useful.

My sister was recently querying me about a good introduction to philosophy. I remembered this book I read as a teenager that back then I found a good introduction for a layman, but could not remember the authors. A few days back had a chance to look up the book, it is Philosophy made simple. A rather generic title, but it was in fact an accessible intro. I remember gasping at the idea of Leipnitz's monads and some other bits.

Stoicism (also rich selection from modern stoicism) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (main early proponents being Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis but there are many more) in general provide a very wide toolkit for thinking about life events, there is lots of writing styles to choose from; after googling for a while easy to come up with a selection to try.

[clark]

Thank you, everyone, for sending all of these interesting links!

Reading Shakespeare is also a very good thinking tool. Shakespeare is well known for “negative capability,” that is, his willingless to dwell in uncertainty and ambiguity instead of feeling forced to offer a universal truth. Is Hamlet morally good or bad? Was he mad or sane? Is he a victim of the play’s tragedy, or did he cause it? You could easily argue both sides of these arguments, and in reading Shakespeare, you are in fact forced to contend with both sides of a mor question. This contrasts with didactic literature, such as that of C.S. Lewis, Ayn Rand, and even Charles Dickens at times, where the moral and philosophical answers are fed to you.

Why is Shakespeare helpful for thought? We live in an age where dogmatic thinking is increasingly prevalent and where sacred cows multiply by the year. Being able to think dialectically and possess Negatively Capable thought is quite valuable and can keep you out of thought ruts that many people get stuck in for a whole lifetime.

On another note, I think literary figures in general can be a useful shorthand for understanding and communicating certain personality archetypes (Scrooge, Don Juan, Ahab and his white whale, etc.). It’s certainly not as scientific as more modern personality classifications but is much more vivid and easy to remember.

[guitarplayer]

On another note, I think literary figures in general can be a useful shorthand for understanding and communicating certain personality archetypes (Scrooge, Don Juan, Ahab and his white whale, etc.). It’s certainly not as scientific as more modern personality classifications but is much more vivid and easy to remember.

With the addition that more modern personality classifications are not necessarily that high up the pedestal of science either. This was a good one @clark, the same thought crosses my mind occasionally.

An interesting exercise would be to link personality archetypes with e.g. MBTI types / find personality archetypes for MBTI types. Surely some clever people have done it in private many times over.