Perspective · Further reading
Sokrates
Examine what a claim really means.
- questions
- assumptions
- definitions
- reasoning
- critique
Image source ↗ · Eric Gaba (Wikimedia Commons: Sting) · CC BY-SA 2.5 ↗
How to use Sokrates’s perspective
- Ask for a precise explanation when the text relies on words such as best, easy or effective.
- Test the claim with a counterexample and make the remaining uncertainty visible.
Our own applications for copy – not quotations and not an endorsement.
Questions to work with
- What exactly do we mean by this word?
- When would the claim not hold?
Sources from the original project
- Plato's Apology: Socrates defends the examined life, his god-given mission, and his view of death at trial ↗
- Gorgias (part 1): Socrates on rhetoric as flattery and why doing wrong is worse than suffering it ↗
Inherited source references. Read the original before attributing advice to the person. These applications are not quotations or an official collaboration.
Frameworks that pair with this perspective
Peter Yang · EvaluationCut the AI tells, keep the voicePeter Yang's no-ai-slop skill names the patterns that make writing sound machine-made: empty superlatives, false…April Dunford · OfferShow the difference that mattersPositioning as April Dunford describes it: start with what customers would otherwise choose, identify what you can do…Isof / our Swedish writing guide · Swedish writingWrite as if the idea began in SwedishWrite Swedish copy directly in Swedish, from the reader's situation and the sender's voice – not by way of English.…
More perspectives in Further reading
Thinkers to test your reasoning against. They add depth, not product evidence.
Andrew HubermanExplain knowledge without overstating the evidence
Bryan JohnsonMake measurements and personal experiments understandable
David GogginsResponsibility and action in motivational writing
ThePrimeagenMake technical reasoning clear and testable