This is a linkpost for the concepts described and longlisted on ConceptuallybyPeter McIntyre, Jesse Avshalomov, James Aung, and Alex Norman. I set up a weekly reminder to check one concept to review the content more effectively. You can sign up to a mailing list on the website which is supposed to do this, but it is no longer working.
Concepts described on the website
Signalling and Countersignalling. Why do we spend so much on wedding rings, do springbokâs jump in the air, and is college so expensive?
Explore-exploit tradeoff. When should you try something new, or stick with what you already know and like?
Decline of Violence. Why has violence declined across the globe over the course of history?
Fox vs. Hedgehog. How should we view the world and forecast the future?
Option Value. Whatâs the cost of âkeeping all your doors openâ?
Objective vs Subjective. What does it even mean for something to be âobjectiveâ or âsubjectiveâ?
Equilibrium. An equilibrium is a state of balance where opposing forces are equal to each other.
The Map is not the Territory. The map and territory is a metaphor used to illustrate the difference between the actual world and our understanding of the world as we perceive it to be. The âmapâ is our understanding of the âterritoryâ of reality, and we must be careful to remember that the map is not the territory!
Externalities. Why the free market gives us too much pollution and too few vaccines
Pareto Principle. The Pareto principle is the idea that, for many things, roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the inputs. This is why the Pareto principle is also known as the 80â20 rule.
Abstraction. Abstraction is the process of generalising complex events in the real world to the abstract ideas that underly them, tucking away the complexities of the situation.
Meta. Something is meta if it is self-referential: if it follows the scheme âa thing about a thingâ. Learn how meta-analysis, metacognition, and âgoing metaâ all help you in your life.
Natural selection and memes. Natural selection is the process by which the natural environment causes different organisms to survive or die based on their different traits Itâs where the term âsurvival of the fittestâ comes from.
Concepts to improve your thinking
Link post
This is a linkpost for the concepts described and longlisted on Conceptually by Peter McIntyre, Jesse Avshalomov, James Aung, and Alex Norman. I set up a weekly reminder to check one concept to review the content more effectively. You can sign up to a mailing list on the website which is supposed to do this, but it is no longer working.
Concepts described on the website
Signalling and Countersignalling. Why do we spend so much on wedding rings, do springbokâs jump in the air, and is college so expensive?
Explore-exploit tradeoff. When should you try something new, or stick with what you already know and like?
Thinking on the margin. How to think about the value of anything extra.
Dual Process Theory. How should we use our 2 systems of thought: gut-feeling, and rational thought?
Efficient Markets. Why is it so damn hard to find the perfect park or partner?
Heuristics. How do we make decisions under uncertainty? Take a shortcut!
The Overton window. How do we change the world? Shift the Overton window.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Oh boy do we not like receiving conflicting information. Why, and how do we resolve it? Cognitive Dissonance Theory.
Counterfactuals. What would happen if...
Reference Class Forecasting. How long will your project take? How much will it cost? Increase your accuracy with reference class forecasting.
Expected Value. Playing with chances and values...
Scope Insensitivity. How does our intuition process large numbers? It doesnât.
Coordination Problems. Coordination problems are at the root of some of the largest problems we have in society, like climate change.
Discounting. How much more valuable is it today vs tomorrow?
Cialdiniâs 6 Principles of Influence. 6 principles to explain how marketing and sales tactics work.
Comparative Advantage. Whatâs the use in trade and specialisation and how should you choose a career?
Regression to the Mean. Why the champion team wonât win next season and early results in science are so often wrong.
Bayesâ Rule. How to deal with conflicting information of different strengths and get the right answer on your statistics test.
Zero- vs Positive-Sum. Who gets what share of the pie and whatâs the best negotiation strategy?
Ex Ante and Ex Post. Was it right to buy that lottery ticket? Well, it depends on whether youâre talking ex ante or ex post.
Cognitive Biases. Weâre all wrong in our unique way, but weâre also all wrong in the same ways. Isnât that cute?
Strawmen and Steelwomen. How do you win an argument? Debate against a strawman. How do you get to the truth? Steelwoman.
Signal and Noise. A concept for thinking about what the meaningful information youâre trying to detect is.
Occamâs Razor. Cut through the crap with a tool from your mate, Occam.
Principal-Agent Problems. Moral hazard, adverse selection, information asymmetry causing problems left, right and center.
Empirical Evidence. Franky Bacon the Science God, armchair reasoning, and a rationalist-empiricist rumble.
Determinism. Is there really not that much you can do? (cue existential dread)
Elasticity. Stretch your mind!
Moral Foundations Theory. Where do feelings of rightness and wrongness come from?
False Positives and False Negatives. How to distinguish evidence from reality.
Efficiency. How to get the most out of anything.
Decline of Violence. Why has violence declined across the globe over the course of history?
Fox vs. Hedgehog. How should we view the world and forecast the future?
Option Value. Whatâs the cost of âkeeping all your doors openâ?
Objective vs Subjective. What does it even mean for something to be âobjectiveâ or âsubjectiveâ?
Equilibrium. An equilibrium is a state of balance where opposing forces are equal to each other.
The Map is not the Territory. The map and territory is a metaphor used to illustrate the difference between the actual world and our understanding of the world as we perceive it to be. The âmapâ is our understanding of the âterritoryâ of reality, and we must be careful to remember that the map is not the territory!
Externalities. Why the free market gives us too much pollution and too few vaccines
Pareto Principle. The Pareto principle is the idea that, for many things, roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the inputs. This is why the Pareto principle is also known as the 80â20 rule.
Abstraction. Abstraction is the process of generalising complex events in the real world to the abstract ideas that underly them, tucking away the complexities of the situation.
Meta. Something is meta if it is self-referential: if it follows the scheme âa thing about a thingâ. Learn how meta-analysis, metacognition, and âgoing metaâ all help you in your life.
Natural selection and memes. Natural selection is the process by which the natural environment causes different organisms to survive or die based on their different traits Itâs where the term âsurvival of the fittestâ comes from.
Concepts longlisted on the website
Introspection illusion.
Systems Thinking.
Map and territory.
Words as handles.
Terminal vs instrumental goals.
Hedging.
Pareto principle.
Statistical distributions.
Evolution and selection of ideas.
Convergence.
Externalities.
Chestertonâs fence.
Price discrimination.
Decision theory.
Uncertainty.
Prescriptive and descriptive.
Equilibria.
Status anxiety.
Fixed costs vs variable costs.
Curse of knowledge, and illusion of transparency.
Effective altruism.
Astronomical waste.
Existential risk.
BATNA.
Core competency.
Porterâs 5 forces analysis.
Minimum viable product.
Product/âmarket fit.
Creative destruction.
Economic rent.
Bertrand paradox.
Tullock paradox.
Winnerâs curse.
De re vs de dicto.
Red team.
Feedback loop.
Essentialism.
Toxoplasma of rage.
Near vs far.
Gartner hype cycle.
Deduction vs induction.
Validity and soundness.
Rent Seeking.
Peter principle.
Attractor states and default modes.
Granularity /â levels of analysis.
Ring of Gyges.
Hawthorne effect.
Lucas critique.
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
Unilateralist curse.
Meta, abstraction, and recursion.
Futarchy, and prediction markets.
Belief in belief.
Loss aversion.
Sunk cost fallacy.
Mooreâs law.
Subjective, objective, and intersubjective.
Antifragile, and hormesis.
System accidents (complexity and coupling).
Locus of control.
Secondary gain.
r/âK selection.
Dunbarâs number.
Batemanâs principle.
Proving too much.
Growth mindset.
Apophenia.
Monopoly, and monopsony.
Pikettyâs capital.
Easterlin paradox.
Lernerâs theorem.
Preference transitivity.
Flynn effect.
Goodhartâs law.