The narrative fallacy is our tendency to create coherent stories with inevitable sequences out of disconnected facts and random events. Along with it we see linear cause-and-effect coherence when there is mere coincidence or correlation without cause and effect. Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that has found, perversely, when we have low ability, skill,Continue reading “IN MEDIAS RES”
Tag Archives: life
Lie Back and Think of England
In the dream I was to ascend to my title, the 112th earl of something or other. There was some confusion. Was I the 111th? There was a little box that had the numbers on it, written out in numerals. The ceremony started and I knew I had to get out for a moment andContinue reading “Lie Back and Think of England”
REMEMBERING MOM
My mother is without a doubt one of the most dynamic and interesting persons I have known. She was acquainted with me before anyone else and had greater responsibility and influence over me in the earliest moments of my existence. The earliest moments I do not recall in ways we understand as conscious and communicable,Continue reading “REMEMBERING MOM”
The Character of Things
I have always felt torn between the need for something exciting and dangerous, for a sense of greater purpose and momentous importance, and a desire for quiet and insignificance except what I make of events for myself. Walking alone some time in my own primordial past, the phrase “only myself to please” came on meContinue reading “The Character of Things”
And the Word Is Two
Hey! What about ancestor worship and the price of beef? How can I express the connections as quickly and efficiently as possible without leaving gaps for others to insert doubt and objections? How can I gain and maintain the attention of others while also maintaining control of my own thoughts and ability to articulate themContinue reading “And the Word Is Two”
A Matter of Identity
It first occurred to me in context of sexuality that people’s thinking, and particularly ideological and paradigmatic conceptions, are based on identity, not facts or evidence or logic or science or even just belief. This was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was thinking about a lot of identity-centered concepts, notContinue reading “A Matter of Identity”
