Even many of the smartest people that have ever lived convinced themselves of false things (just like the rest of us). Here are some fun and wild examples: (1) Linus Pauling won TWO Nobel prizes - one in peace and one in chemistry. Unfortunately, he eventually became obsessed with and widely promoted the false (and sometimes still repeated) idea that high-dose vitamin C cures many disease...

Some people claim that the idea of technology or science being slowed down is ridiculous - that they march forward at their own pace. But this is not always true - there are a number of interesting examples of tech, tech adoption, and science being greatly slowed down: 1) Psychedelics: In 1966, LSD was banned in CA, and in 1968, a U.S. law came out banning psilocybin (the chemical in "magic mu...

What countries have the most unicorns (i.e., billion-dollar startup companies) per capita (i.e., per person)? Oddly, I couldn't find this anywhere, so I calculated it. The winners: Singapore Israel the United States Estonia Ireland Here's the full chart I created: Interestingly, the top of the table pretty closely follows the amount of startup investment ...

1) What do you do when a predatory journal keeps spam emailing you to get you to make a submission? Submit this paper to their journal:  2) To succeed in academia, you need lots of publications. But the order of authors' names on a paper impacts who gets the credit. Thankfully, there's a technological solution to make every author the first author: ...

You're on a mountain range, trying to reach the highest mountain peak you're capable of reaching. That peak reflects the total sum of your achievements according to your intrinsic values. This may include, for instance, your happiness, the happiness of your loved ones, your positive impact on the world, living virtuously, achieving your deeply meaningful goals, and so on. Unfortunat...

I've often heard software/start-up folks say they need a "designer." Few realize how hopelessly vague this is. I think there are at least four different (unrelated) start-up "design" skills that are rarely all found in one person. Four types of "designers" for software start-ups: 1) Artist Designers (a.k.a., Graphic Designers) They usually know Adobe Illustrator, can draw by hand beauti...

A mistake we all make sometimes is attributing an improvement to whatever we've tried recently. For instance, we may get medicine from a doctor (or go to an acupuncturist) and feel better, so we conclude it worked. But did it actually work, or was it just chance? Here's a trick to help you decide: What matters (evidence-wise) is how likely that level of improvement would have been in that time...

1. Suppose a new species evolves on earth with the same intellectual, planning, and coordination abilities relative to us that we have relative to chimps. Chimps are faster and stronger than most humans - why don't they run the show? 2. Suppose aliens show up on earth that are far smarter than the smartest among us at all cognitive tasks. They have specific goals that aren't fully aligned with...