Tim Urban on Idea Labs and High-Rung Thinking

Source: Invest Like The Best on Spotify

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Tim is a writer who writes on diverse topics from AI to procrastination that is engaging and insightful. His work can be found at waitbutwhy.com.

‘12 — High rung vs Low Rung thinking
- High Rung thinking → You care about the truth.
  - You don’t identify with your views. The primary motivation is seeking truth.
  - Requires humility.
- Low Rung thinking → You consider your belief to be a core part of your identity.
  - Eg. Religious/political beliefs.
  - It’s not thinking per se but an effort to confirm your existing beliefs.
  - You don’t like your views being challenged.
‘15 — Idea Lab vs Echo Chamber:
- Idea Lab:
  - It is an intellectual structure that values truth.
  - Basically collaborative high-rung thinking.
  - Disagreeing on something here is cool enforcing your conviction is not.
- Echo Chamber:
  - Collaborative low-rung thinking.
  - The identity of the group is tied to the fact that the group believes in certain ideas.
  - It’s us vs them.
‘19 — Idea Lab to Genie
- Individual High-rung thinking minds come together to form an idea lab.
- A big enough idea lab connected by language and writing becomes a super-intelligent brain called a genie.
‘20 — Echo Chamber to Gollum
- Its superpower is strength and scariness.
- Everyone agrees on the same thing. We’re good, and they’re bad.
- They’re a force of nature if not stopped, can be devastating.