Steve Patterson

Author: Steve Patterson

  • Another Death in the Family

    Friends,

    My father unexpectedly died from a heart attack. I will be taking a week off.

  • Logic is not a Convention

    Technically speaking, you can move the rook diagonally. You’re just breaking the rules.

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  • Everything is Grounded in Logic

    To become a philosopher, you only need to ask one question: “Why?”

    When you receive an answer, ask the question again; you’ll quickly get into some deep, abstract ideas.  And you’ll quickly annoy whomever you’re talking with.

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  • Theory Versus Reality: My Economic Predictions

    Economic predictions are notorious for being wrong. The next ten years are predicted to be anything from glorious to catastrophic; economists have all their bases covered. In the midst of economic confusion and chaos, we only have one tool available for explaining the world around us: theory. Different schools of thought offer mutually-exclusive theories about how the world works.

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  • When Being Colorblind is Racist: the Baltimore Riots

    The Baltimore riots have sparked a lot of controversy. People have rushed to take sides – the cops versus the rioters, black versus white, peaceful protests versus violent protests. During these debates, lots of words get thrown around – lots of murky, ambiguous words. “Racism” is arguably the most popular, and it’s not exactly clear what the term means anymore.

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  • Assume Everybody is Wrong

    Skepticism is necessary to have an accurate worldview. You can’t simply believe something because somebody told you. You have to doubt, often. At the beginning of a philosophical journey, you must even doubt yourself – are you perhaps an unreliable narrator? Can your own mind be trusted?

    In the last several years, this perspective has become crystallized in my mind and developed into something like a life motto. It’s a simple principle:

    Everybody is wrong about everything all the time.

     The more I interact with people, the more this principle is affirmed. There are exceptions, of course, but it’s an incredibly reliable rule of thumb.

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