How Do I Know What I Know?
“Any year that passes in which you don’t destroy one of your best loved ideas is a wasted year.” — Charlie Munger
It’s good to question our knowledge occasionally.
How can you be certain that what you believe to be true isn’t complete bullshit?
Our worldview is shaped by many factors and those influences often lie beneath the surface, outside of conscious thought.
A friend says something to you, then it comes up again in an article that you read or in your Facebook Newsfeed, then the next day you see something about it on Twitter. At some stage without realizing it, you’ve started to form an opinion about what’s true.
You’ve adopted a belief without carefully considering it first.
Without critical thought being applied consistently to our pre-existing ideas and beliefs, we become more gullible to false information.
Consider the news that you’re currently reading. They are written by journalists. People like you and me that have the same set of psychological biases.
The journalists that are covering this pandemic must consult experts to write their stories. That leads one to wonder:
- How do they choose the experts they talk to and how do they filter the information they receive from experts?
