Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by arethuza 3448 days ago
From the "patron saint of reason and common sense" I can recommend Carl Sagan's "Baloney Detection Kit" from superb The Demon-Haunted World:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-k...

2 comments

In fact, that's one of Calling Bullshit's sources:

http://callingbullshit.org/syllabus.html#Spotting

Oh dear - I should have read that page more carefully.

Anyway here is one that isn't on their list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_People_Believe_Weird_Thing...

The whole book is essential reading. Sagan mostly picks easy targets (supernatural claims), but the process is enlightening. For example he lays out the general uselessness of witness testimony and memory, which has extremely broad implications.