Explore innovative educational approaches that could make the world more rational. Discover how Bayes' theorem can be simplified to engage students effectively. Learn about the power of visual tools in understanding complex concepts. Dive into relatable examples that make Bayesian reasoning accessible for young learners. Finally, see how revitalizing education through exciting questions and historical context can redefine learning across various subjects.
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insights INSIGHT
Human Mind as Diverse Toolkit
Our minds have evolved as a toolkit of diverse cognitive capacities, not a single general-purpose learning engine.
These tools include embodied, narrative, and qualitative ways alongside abstract, logical, and quantitative methods.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Visualize Bayes Theorem for Understanding
Make Bayes visual with intuitive images like rectangles instead of equations.
Visualizations can engage brain areas evolved for processing sight, easing learning of abstract concepts.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Use Emotional Binaries for Intuition
Connect Bayes abstractions to a fundamental emotional binary like good vs. bad.
Use color or cultural symbols to make concepts intuitive and memorable.
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Just Tell Them, The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching
Just Tell Them, The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching
Zach Groshell
The baby book
The baby book
Kenward Elmslie
The Elephant and The Rider
The Elephant and The Rider
Jonathan Haidt
The well-educated mind
A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
Susan Wise Bauer
The Well-Educated Mind provides brief, entertaining histories of six literary genres—fiction, autobiography, history, drama, poetry, and science—accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The book includes annotated lists of recommended readings, ranging from ancient works to contemporary literature, and encourages readers to make connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing. It reassures readers who worry about their reading speed or comprehension, offering practical advice on allocating time to reading, mastering difficult arguments, and making personal and literary judgments about what they read.
The master and his emissary
The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
Iain McGilchrist
This book argues that the division of the brain into two hemispheres is essential to human existence, allowing for two incompatible versions of the world. The left hemisphere is detail-oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things, and is inclined to self-interest, while the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity. McGilchrist takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists from ancient to modern times. He argues that the increasing dominance of the left hemisphere in today’s world has potentially disastrous consequences.
After Virtue
Alistair McIntyre
Alasdair MacIntyre's "After Virtue" is a highly influential work in moral philosophy that critiques modern ethical theories and proposes a return to virtue ethics. MacIntyre argues that modern moral philosophy has lost its way, leading to a fragmented and incoherent understanding of morality. He traces the historical development of ethical thought, identifying the decline of virtue ethics and the rise of emotivism and other relativistic approaches. MacIntyre proposes a revival of virtue ethics grounded in the Aristotelian tradition, emphasizing the importance of character development and the cultivation of virtuous dispositions. His work has had a profound impact on contemporary ethical debates, inspiring renewed interest in virtue ethics and its application to various social and political issues.
A guest post by Brandon Hendrickson
[Editor’s note: I accept guest posts from certain people, especially past Book Review Contest winners. Brandon Hendrickson, whose review of The Educated Mind won the 2023 contest, has taken me up on this and submitted this essay. He writes at The Lost Tools of Learning and will be at LessOnline this weekend, where he and Jack Despain Zhou aka TracingWoodgrains will be doing a live conversation about education.]
I began my book review of a couple years back with a rather simple question:
Could a new kind of school make the world rational?
What followed, however, was a sprawling distillation of one scholar’s answer that I believe still qualifies as “the longest thing anyone has submitted for an ACX contest”. Since then I’ve been diving into particulars, exploring how we use the insights I learned while writing it to start re-enchanting all the academic subjects from kindergarten to high school. But in the fun of all that, I fear I’ve lost touch with that original question. How, even in theory, could a method of education help all students become rational?
It probably won’t surprise you that I think part of the answer is Bayes’ theorem. But the equation is famously prickly and off-putting:
Astral Codex Ten Podcast 
