How to Review an Article
Here is a template you can use for reviewing an article by yourself or with your friends. One of the most common questions I get is along the lines of, “How should I go...
Category: Critical Thinking
Flush Your Stool Down The Funnel
Ok. I’m just now realizing that I didn’t think that title all the way through. Anyway, evidence based medicine (EBM) is a noble ideal but good lord has it gone sideways! To quote John...
Tru Dat!
What is “truth” or “knowledge”? Can we have “alternative facts”, my reality vs your reality, or are ideas a simple black and white true or false? As with many things in life, the answer...
Are You Smarter Than a Pigeon?
Imagine that you are a contestant on a game show. You are standing in front of three identical doors. Behind one of the doors is a new car. Behind the other two doors are...
Changing Beliefs
Many people in the skeptic community are often frustrated when, after they have laid out so many sound arguments based on clear reasoning, they still can’t seem to change what someone believes. Once you...
Measuring Outcomes is the Least We Can Do
Whenever an intervention is applied in a medical interaction it results in outcomes. Mind you, not just one outcome, but many. Take surgery for example. There are biological outcomes (new ACL graft, muscle strength,...
The Art of Doing Nothing
It is sunny. And hot. I never knew London could be hot. I was in town teaching a course and had some time to kill before my flight home Monday morning. “But, Erik! We...
Learning From Experience
“Much learning does not teach understanding.” -Heraclitus The mind works like a human Bayesian reasoning system. “Dammit! I’m not reading this! BAYES?! DON”T MAKE ME LEARN SOME KIND OF MATH!” Easy, dear internet user....
Because You Know I’m All About That Base
“This is a common pattern: people who have information about an individual case rarely feel the need to know the statistics of the class to which the case belongs.” – Daniel Kahneman I have...
Breaking Down Water to Put Out a Fire
“Thus I saw that most men only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.” – Johann Wolfgang...