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#Gell mann effect professional#

This sometimes means spending inordinate time digging into one claim or one debate.

Think a lot about which writers and sources I trust most.

It means reading academic papers instead of just news articles (and even books). That means reading multiple arguments, comparing them against each other, and trying to identify the sources of disagreement. I decide which topics I’d really like to understand, and get really into them.

Learn about fewer things, more deeply.

What do you DO in this case? How do you inform yourself if you really don’t trust anything?Īs someone who tries to have Gell-Mann Earworms, I try to:

This probably sounds unpleasant and scary, and that’s probably part of the reason people have Gell-Mann Amnesia. I think most people agree with what I just wrote as they read it, but they don’t feel it day to day: they have Gell-Mann Amnesia.Ĭonsider the opposite condition: Gell-Mann Earworms, in which “I can’t trust this” is constantly ringing in your ears as you read anything.(Very much including this blog!) If there were a browser extension that inserted “Based on a true story” at the beginning of every online piece, this might give a feel for having Gell-Mann Earworms. There are some norms and forces that reward accuracy and punish inaccuracy in writing, and they often catch blatant falsehoods, but I wouldn’t generally say there’s strong pressure on writers to give their readers an accurate overall understanding of reality. Systematically misleading, partly because most of what you read is ultimately on something much closer to an “entertainment” business model (the author wants you to enjoy your experience) than an “accuracy” business model (the writer wants you to get accurate information).Biased, if only because they’re written by human beings.

#Gell mann effect professional#

Underinformed, because professional writers are rarely experts because real experts often can’t write all that well and because it's hard even for experts to know everything relevant for the topic at hand (especially when the topic doesn't fit well within a particular field).But I think it’s genuinely true that most of what you read is some combination of: You turn the page, and forget what you know. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read.

I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows.