Key Terms & Definitions

SOL

Students of Life. The standard and identity of this site: learning in public, following evidence, and being willing to change your mind. Not a slogan — a standard.

Context: Site

Evidence-based

Analysis or claims that appeal to data, research, and reasoning that can be checked — not ideology, assertion, or preference alone. SOL aims to be evidence-based in what it publishes.

Context: Site

Everyday Review

The section of the site that hosts evidence-based takes on what's in the world right now — articles that follow the data, cut through noise, and explain what it means for regular people.

Context: Site

Critical thinking

Evaluating claims and arguments using reason, evidence, and clear standards — instead of accepting or rejecting them by team, tribe, or gut. SOL emphasizes how to think, not what to think.

Context: Site

Opinion, hypothesis, theory, fact

Opinion: a personal view or preference. Hypothesis: a testable explanation. Well-substantiated theory: a broad explanation supported by repeated testing (e.g. evolution). Fact: observations or results confirmed by evidence. SOL uses these distinctions to separate strong claims from weak ones.

Context: Library

Cognitive dissonance

The psychological discomfort of holding two or more conflicting beliefs, values, or pieces of knowledge. People often reduce it by changing a belief or rationalizing rather than accepting the conflict. Leon Festinger formalized the concept.

Context: Your Brain Is Lying to You

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms what we already believe and to downplay or dismiss what doesn't. It reinforces existing views and makes bubbles and echo chambers more likely.

Context: Your Brain Is Lying to You

Motivated reasoning

Reasoning driven by a desired conclusion rather than by a neutral weighing of evidence. We use our smarts to defend what we want to believe instead of to find out what's true.

Context: Your Brain Is Lying to You

Dunning–Kruger effect

The pattern where people with low ability in a domain tend to overestimate their ability, while experts often underestimate theirs. It highlights how hard it is to judge our own competence.

Context: Your Brain Is Lying to You

Patriotism (blind vs. constructive)

Blind patriotism: uncritical loyalty to country or symbols. Constructive patriotism: critical loyalty aimed at improving the country and holding power to account. Scholars use this distinction; neither definition is handed down from the Constitution.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Algorithm (in SOL context)

The systems that decide what you see in feeds and recommendations. They often optimize for engagement (clicks, shares, time), which tends to favor outrage, tribalism, and simplicity over nuance — so what you see is not a neutral mirror of reality.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Filter bubble / echo chamber

An environment where you mainly see content that matches your existing views and preferences, so your beliefs get reinforced and opposing or complicating information is rare. Algorithms and selective exposure both contribute.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Sycophant

Someone who uses insincere flattery toward the powerful to gain favor — servile, obsequious behavior. From ancient Greek (literally "one who shows the fig"). In SOL context: when loyalty runs to a person instead of institutions, sycophancy thrives.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Populism (leader-centric)

Movements that claim to speak for "the people" against elites. Leader-centric populism shifts the reference point from country or constitution to a single person as the embodiment of the people's will; loyalty runs to the leader, and institutions are used when they help the leader and ignored or rewritten when they don't.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Nativism / anti-immigration

Hostility or policy aimed at immigrants or certain immigrant groups, often framed as protecting "native" culture, jobs, or identity. Historically it resurfaces with similar rhetoric — "wrong kinds" of immigrants, preference for certain origins — and has targeted different groups in different eras (e.g. 1920s quotas, contemporary rhetoric).

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Isolationism

A policy or stance favoring withdrawal from international engagement, alliances, or openness (e.g. trade, immigration). Often paired with nativism and "America first"–style rhetoric. The U.S. has had waves of isolationist sentiment (e.g. 1920s); the term helps describe recurring patterns.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Us vs. them (behavior vs. identity)

When "them" is defined by behavior (e.g. those who overstep, cheat, cause harm), accountability is possible. When "them" is defined by identity (party, ideology, tribe), compromise and trust drop and the "select few" who actually cause harm can get a pass because attention stays on tribal conflict.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

CEO-to-worker pay ratio

The ratio of CEO compensation to typical worker pay at large firms. In the U.S. it grew from about 20-to-1 (1965) to 281-to-1 (2024); CEO pay rose roughly 1,085% from 1978 to 2023 while typical worker pay rose about 24%. Used as an indicator of inequality and who captures gains.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism

Affective / identity polarization

Polarization driven by dislike or distrust of the other side as a group (affect) or by strong in-group/out-group identity — not only by policy disagreement. Research shows it can deepen when people are exposed to opposing views in certain contexts (e.g. some social media) and when outrage content spreads further than neutral content.

Context: Algorithms and Patriotism