This first book is about epistemology, the study of how we come to know the world.

A healthy epistemology is not only about avoiding sins like self-deception and obfuscation. It is also about living out virtues like curiosity and empiricism, and taking active steps to dissolve confusion and see the world more clearly over time.

We do not understand how many parts of reality work. We also have many motives to not look directly at it or obscure it from others. Yet we humans are able to understand and fix a broken kitchen sink, build valuable products, and invent highly predictive theories of physics.

From practical heuristics to idealized cognitive algorithms, this book is about these types of thinking. Thinking that helps us understand the world, and helps us build a map that reflects the territory.