Ponder.wiki can be ponderous

But ponderous is better than pointless.

When you first start “pondering” with ponder.wiki, you will likely have a hard time figuring out how to structure your thinking into rigorous, evidence based reasoning.  I certainly did.  And it can still be a challenging and slow process even now that I’ve had a bit of practice.  Perhaps as I continue pondering it will become second nature, and I’ll avoid some of the pitfalls that sometimes lead me to start from scratch after developing a dissatisfying ponder.  Or, perhaps, standards and best practices could emerge that will make getting started easier and faster. Or, perhaps it will always feel a little ponderous.  Time will tell.

Regardless, when I compare pondering to the alternative, it already seems easier and more effective.

That's not to say that I haven't had discussions where analysis flows easily, we understand each other quickly, nobody is arguing in circles, people concede points where appropriate and help me see errors in my own thinking, and so forth.

But, when discussion turns to contentious issues, in my experience these kinds of highly productive conversations are, unfortunately, not the norm—especially when people come with distinctly different perspectives and worldviews.  Instead, often the alternative to pondering is endlessly talking past each other in circles, defensively clinging to initial views, finding superficial reasons to dismiss challenges, or even slipping into name calling and ad hominems.  Or worse, tiptoeing through minefields, avoiding discussing salient issues at all and filling the void with small talk and pleasantries.

How is ponder.wiki better?

• Forming your ideas into rigorous, evidence based reasoning is hard work, but it has immediate and substantial payoff: it clarifies, improves, validates and reveals weaknesses in your thinking.  Every time you do it you will discover assumptions that you didn't even realize you were making and challenging issues you were glossing over.  You may not change your mind about a topic merely by translating your own perspective into a ponder, but you'll be smarter about its subtleties and humbler about the unknowns.

• Typically discussion and debate don’t change minds.  If anything, they tend to harden perspectives.  However, anecdotally, I’m already seeing evidence that engaging disagreements by pondering about them changes minds more often than not.  Perhaps this is related to the first item above, where merely articulating your own ideas into a ponder tends to instill a sense of humility.  It’s too early to say for sure, but whereas normal conversation has only a low chance of changing minds, it seems that pondering may have a high chance.

• Only one person in the entire world has to map a chain of reasoning, a single time, and it never has to be mapped again. It's a permanent resource for the world, and will continue impacting the evolving analysis on ponder.wiki forever.  In contrast, how many thousands, or even millions, of times do people make exactly the same point on X/Twitter… only for it to be lost in a sea of noise?  Now, multiply that times all the social media and discussion sites on the Internet.  If only an infinitesimal fraction of that energy was put into pondering, we would have detailed, rigorously mapped analyses of every important issue, accompanied by impartial algorithmic summaries of the strength of each argument.  An intellectual resource on the scale of Wikipedia but far more rigorous and with reduced potential for bias and abuse.

So, it might feel like you don’t have time to articulate your ideas so rigorously and in so much detail.  But, perhaps the truth is, you don’t have time not to.  In the long run, what will be more costly and time consuming to you?  Having poorly articulated, irrational and wrong ideas, or taking the time to be rigorous about your ideas and exposing them to critique?  Having discussions where people don’t make progress towards understanding each other, and thus never come closer to agreement, or having all parties slow down and examine each other’s ideas carefully?  Re-stating ideas dozens of times in different venues, or leveraging the work of a world-wide network of collaborators so arguments need be made only a single time.

Ponder.wiki can be ponderous, but ponderous is better than pointless.

To get started, watch the introductory videos.