Scientific Thinking

Scientific Thinking

About the Book

We are exposed to large amounts of information every day via the media, advertising, colleagues, friends, family etc. Some of this information is right, some is partially right, some is wrong, and a lot of it is contradictory. How do you tell truth from fallacy?

The answer is to learn to think scientifically. When someone makes a claim you should ask: Where is the evidence?

Learning scientific thinking is a journey that continues your whole life. This book is only one step of that journey. The book will introduce the basic scientific process as well as a few issues to look out for when evaluating the claims of others. Issues such as bias, scientific blind spots, topical ignorance, shallow science and science hijacking.

This is intended to be a living book. As I find more I want to add to this book, I will update it. Readers are welcome to send me input too.

About the Author

Jakob Jenkov
Jakob Jenkov

Jakob Jenkov is a technopreneur, software architect and writer / publisher focused on the big ideas in the software and tech industry. Jakob feels most at home in the nexus between business and technology.

Jakob pursues his interests via his company Jenkov Aps (jenkov.com). Jakob is also the co-founder of VStack.co (vstack.co), which aims at creating a new set of grid ideas and technologies for a faster, more versatile and more intelligent Internet.

Jakob has published more than 800 technical articles which attact millions of readers every year, and produced a few videos which attract hundreds of thousands of viewers every year.

Jakob has worked with web development and enterprise software since 1998. Most of the time he has worked as a freelance consultant for larger, well-known corporations like IBM, CSC, SDC, Nordea etc. The later years Jakob has taken a step back from development to focus on software architecture an the business context in which it exists.

Jakob prefers a scientific approach to problem solving, favouring deep analysis and evidence over shallow understanding, assumptions and opinions whenever possible.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Introduction
    • Rational Thinking
    • About this Book
  • The Scientific Method
    • Observe the Subject
    • Form the Theory
    • Test the Theory
  • Testing Theories
    • Where is the Evidence?
    • Alternative Theories Possible?
    • Facts Trump Feelings
  • Scientific Objectivity
    • Bias
    • Eliminating Bias
  • Scientific Blind Spots
    • Challenging Scientific Blind Spots
    • Rational Blind Spots
    • Topical Ignorance
  • Shallow Science
  • Science Hijacking
  • The Messenger is Irrelevant
  • The Martians
    • Planet Mars
    • The Observation
    • The First Theory
    • An Alternative Theory
    • Crime on Mars
    • Silence the Critics
    • Shoot the Messenger
    • The Rest is History
  • Summary

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