Micro Misconcepts

What you don’t know can hurt you

13th November 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org

From me

Ignorance is not bliss.

What we don't know can still hurt us, because not knowing doesn't stop reality from unfolding. We keep making decisions and taking actions regardless. Every day, we decide how to spend our finite life resources, our time, our money, and our mental and physical resource. Those decisions simply get made by whatever misconcepts we already hold by default.

Every one of those decisions carries an opportunity cost, and reality doesn't care whether we know or not. It delivers the outcome either way.

So ignorance hides the choice. It doesn't remove it.

We just don't see the cost until we have less time left to do anything about it. Perhaps it arrives as a midlife crisis, or as a regret we only face at the very end.

Read the full piece →

From others

Writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley on facing the facts:

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

Source: Proper Studies (1927)

Astronomer and science writer Carl Sagan on choosing reality over comfort:

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

Source: The Demon-Haunted World (1995)

For you

What's your most important goal, and which misconcepts do you need to improve to get there?

To good iterations,

Syn Yun

P.S. Life is made up of about a billion decisions, each one made using our misconcepts. Which is why small differences in their quality compound into very different lives. And why developing fit-for-purpose misconcepts is one of the highest-return uses of our finite life resources.

Learn more at misconcepts.org

Misconcepts are the explanations we hold about how the world works, synonymous with mental models but named deliberately to acknowledge their fallibility. Misconcepts is itself a misconcept and we're always iterating. Reply to this email if you have thoughts. We'd love to hear from you.

Unsubscribe · Preferences

Normal is not a proxy for right

Micro Misconcepts Normal is not a proxy for right 6th November 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me If everyone does it, there must be a good reason. There is a reason, but it may not be the one we imagine. Like genes, ideas compete to survive. What makes one win isn't always that it benefits the people who hold it, though it can. Some win because challenging them feels disloyal, shameful, or like something is wrong with us for even asking. This means common does not equal useful. Socially...

7 days ago • 1 min read

The way we live is a theory too

Micro Misconcepts The way we live is a theory too 30th October 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me We tend to think of knowledge as a collection of proven facts, handed down by someone with authority, whether that's a parent, a teacher or an expert. But the best explanation of knowledge we currently have suggests otherwise. Critical rationalism says that knowledge is provisional. It grows through creative conjecture and criticism. The scientific method is built on that premise, with...

14 days ago • 1 min read

Rational optimism doesn't wait, it acts.

The alternative to pessimism isn't blind optimism

Micro Misconcepts The alternative to pessimism isn't blind optimism 23rd October 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me Pessimism gets dressed up as being realistic, but it's often just a way of avoiding discomfort. Because if we believe a problem can't be solved, we never have to risk trying and failing. Optimism doesn't look like much of an alternative, because when most of us hear the word we picture blind optimism, where we believe things will work out on their own, so there's nothing we...

21 days ago • 1 min read

MICRO MISCONCEPTS

Ignorance is not bliss, it only delays the cost