A. our theoretical understanding of what things are “really” like (physics, atoms, etc.)

with

B. our direct, first-hand experiences as humans.

Examples:

(1) Ethics – most people experience a visceral feeling that some things are inherently and universally morally wrong (e.g., murdering children). Yet it’s unclear what, in the universe of atoms (or in physics), could make (or explain) something being “wrong.”

(2) Free will – we feel as though we constantly make choices (e.g., picking options that we didn’t have to pick). Yet the possibility of choices is hard to square with the existence of laws of physics as we know them. Where could a choice possibly fit into those laws?

(3) Consciousness – we each know we are conscious (in the sense of having experiences / there being something it is like to be us) because we directly witness our own experiences. Yet it’s unclear how or why configurations of atoms could ever give rise to internal experiences.

(4) Identity – we feel like we have a unique, persistent, indivisible identity. Yet, if we imagine thought experiments involving splitting, copying, or rebuilding brains in the physical world, it’s hard to see how a unitary identity could be maintained in those circumstances.

(5) Knowledge – there seem to be many things we each intuitively know to be true (our own names, what orange juice tastes like, how to tie our shoelaces), yet it’s hard to explain what the state of “knowing” these things corresponds to in the world, or to define what “knowing” is.

(6) Mathematics – we all know it’s true that 1+1 = 2 and that the number 2 “exists” in some sense. But it’s hard to say in what sense this is true/existent because numbers and addition don’t seem to exist in the physical realm the way that, say, a particular sandwich does.

This piece was first written on December 23, 2020, and first appeared on this site on April 17, 2023.

Here are five uncommon but highly effective learning techniques:

1. Intuition Flooding

To understand something well on a gut level, spend hours looking closely at a huge number of examples, until your intuition forms a predictive model.

I do this fairly often but don’t think I’ve heard it discussed!

Example: Look carefully at 100 user interfaces.

2. Expert Observation

Ask an expert if you can watch them apply a skill. Ask them to verbalize each choice they make (and why they made it) as they go. Ask them to slow down when they do a step so fast you can’t understand it.

Example: Observe a chess master play an A.I. in chess.

3. Immersive Reading

Get both the eReader (or web/print) version of a book AND the audio version. Listen to the audio book as you read. Gradually increase your speed. This can increase your flow state and enable you to read faster than ever!

Technique from @EmersonSpartz

4. Tweet the Core

After learning something important/having an idea, try to turn it into a tweet capturing the most important part. This will oversimplify, but forces you to think about what the core truly is, and adds value for others.

Example: Explaining hindsight bias in 280 characters.

5. Diagram Learning

As you start to understand an idea, attempt to draw a picture representing it. E.g., make an oval for each sub-concept, connect them with lines based on relationships (e.g., an arrow means “causes”, a line means “correlated”, etc.).

Example: Draw a diagram of your understanding of Karl Marx’s theory of society. (Incidentally, we just launched a site called Society Explained where you can explore diagrams of more than 100 thinker’s theories).

This piece was first written on September 6, 2020, and first appeared on my website on June 25, 2026.