Plus, more generally, if I were putting the book together I’d want to shuttle the reader from page 1 to Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions as soon as I could, since MAMQ is where the Sequences really pulls up the landing gear and takes off. Putting “The Simple Truth” at the start puts another 7,000-odd words between the reader and that take-off. (And I agree that it’s tortuous & opaque, which just makes it an even bigger roadblock. I’d hide it an appendix too.)
I agree with this. I’d start with some bits and pieces of the Map/Territory sequence, followed by a crash course on assorted cognitive biases (because it won’t make sense that Map/Territory talks at length about ‘human irrationality’ and ‘bias’ unless the reader is swiftly provided with examples), followed immediately by a (slightly modified) Mysterious Answers. Then How To Actually Change Your Mind.
Plus, more generally, if I were putting the book together I’d want to shuttle the reader from page 1 to Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions as soon as I could, since MAMQ is where the Sequences really pulls up the landing gear and takes off. Putting “The Simple Truth” at the start puts another 7,000-odd words between the reader and that take-off. (And I agree that it’s tortuous & opaque, which just makes it an even bigger roadblock. I’d hide it an appendix too.)
I agree with this. I’d start with some bits and pieces of the Map/Territory sequence, followed by a crash course on assorted cognitive biases (because it won’t make sense that Map/Territory talks at length about ‘human irrationality’ and ‘bias’ unless the reader is swiftly provided with examples), followed immediately by a (slightly modified) Mysterious Answers. Then How To Actually Change Your Mind.