Alex

Add friend
Sign in to Goodreads to learn more about Alex.


Book cover for The Noonday Demon
Since the world is flawed, perfectionists tend to be depressed. Depression lowers self-esteem, but in many personalities, it does not eliminate pride, which is as good an engine for the fight as any I know.
Loading...
“The US postal system processes half a billion pieces of mail every single day. It’s a staggering number. If all seven billion people on the planet sent a letter or package, the postal service could process them all in a fortnight.”
Carl T. Bergstrom, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

Rainer Maria Rilke
“The bleak fields are asleep, My heart alone wakes; The evening in the harbour Down his red sails takes. Night, guardian of dreams, Now wanders through the land; The moon, a lily white, Blossoms within her hand.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Poems

“So I gave my lecture yesterday. Despite a lack of preparation, I spoke quite well and without hesitation, which I ascribe to the cocaine I had taken beforehand. I told about my discoveries in brain anatomy, all very difficult things that the audience certainly didn’t understand, but all that matters is that they get the impression that I understand it.”
Carl T. Bergstrom, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

“While he has not written about bullshit directly, the sociologist of science Bruno Latour has had a formative effect on our thinking about how people bullshit their audiences. Latour looks at the power dynamics between an author and a reader. In Latour’s worldview, a primary objective of nonfiction authors is to appear authoritative. One good way to do this is to be correct, but that is neither necessary nor sufficient. Correct or not, an author can adopt a number of tactics to make her claims unassailable by her readers—who in turn strive not to be duped. For example, the author can line up a phalanx of allies by citing other writers who support her point, or whose work she builds upon. If you question me, she implies, you have to question all of us. She can also deploy sophisticated jargon. Jargon may facilitate technical communication within a field, but it also serves to exclude those who have not been initiated into the inner circle of a discipline.”
Carl T. Bergstrom, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

“Cohen suggests a test for unclarity: If you can negate a sentence and its meaning doesn’t change, it’s bullshit. “Shakespeare’s Prospero is ultimately the fulcrum of an epistemic tragedy, precisely because of his failure to embrace the hermeneutics of the transfinite.”
Carl T. Bergstrom, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

year in books
Allie
2,332 books | 158 friends

Amanda
2,427 books | 80 friends

Tricia ...
267 books | 35 friends

Kirsten...
37 books | 133 friends

Bare Sajak
158 books | 105 friends

Alexand...
72 books | 22 friends

Alan Gu...
0 books | 31 friends

John Ho...
0 books | 6 friends

More friends…


Polls voted on by Alex

Lists liked by Alex