Hello + An overview

Over the next few months, I am planning to write a few posts on what can broadly be described as 'heuristics for thinking about things'. Though there is no single thing that neatly ties all of these heuristics together, one thing that they share is a simple structure that can be pattern-matched to various situations.

In general I will try to introduce the most prototypical form of the heuristic first and then give some examples of various phenomena that fit the pattern.

I'm still unsure if these heuristics can be successfully applied to a given situation usefully. My hope is that if one can develop a fluency in the process of pattern matching situations, it may be possible to use the heuristics to produce a better than random prediction of the outcome of the situation.

In any case, I am really just attempting to create an impetus to start writing a bit more and develop the skill of technical explanations. The posts will probably also not be heavily edited as I want to move away from my long-time vice of perfectionism. In short: there will probably be much left to desire early on, but hopefully the trajectory will be positive!