Library & Lectures | Everyday Bullshit and SOL

This hub collects SOL-style learning resources: lectures, papers with plain-language summaries, a shared vocabulary for claims, and recommended books per topic.

Lectures

Curated talks and presentations — evidence-based, clear, and worth your time. We add embeds and links as we build the library.

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Scientific papers with summaries

Peer-reviewed papers that matter, with plain-language summaries: what was studied, what was found, and what it means.

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Hypothesis, opinion, theory, fact — a short explainer

In everyday language and in science, these words get mixed up. Here’s how SOL uses them so we can tell strong claims from weak ones.

Hypothesis, opinion, theory, fact — a short explainer

In everyday language and in science, these words get mixed up. Here’s how SOL uses them so we can tell strong claims from weak ones.

Opinion: A personal view or preference. It can be informed or uninformed. It’s not necessarily tested against evidence. “I think X” is an opinion until it’s checked.
Hypothesis: A testable explanation for something we observe. In science, a hypothesis is then tested with data and experiments. It can be supported, refined, or rejected — not “proven” in the final sense.
Well-substantiated theory: A broad explanation that ties together many observations and experiments. In science, “theory” doesn’t mean “guess” — it means a framework that has held up to repeated testing (e.g. evolution, gravity). Strong theories are as reliable as we get.
Fact / objective reality: Observations or results that are confirmed by evidence and can be checked by others. Facts can still be refined with better data, but they represent our best current picture of what’s real.

Lesson 5: Be Hard on Your Opinions

A famous bon mot asserts that opinions are like arse-holes, in that everyone has one. There is great wisdom in this… but I would add that opinions differ significantly from arse-holes, in that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined.

We must think critically, and not just about the ideas of others. Be hard on your beliefs. Take them out onto the verandah and beat them with a cricket bat. Be intellectually rigorous. Identify your biases, your prejudices, your privilege.

Most of society’s arguments are kept alive by a failure to acknowledge nuance. We tend to generate false dichotomies, then try to argue one point using two entirely different sets of assumptions, like two tennis players trying to win a match by hitting beautifully executed shots from either end of separate tennis courts.

By the way, while I have science and arts grads in front of me: please don’t make the mistake of thinking the arts and sciences are at odds with one another. That is a recent, stupid, and damaging idea. You don’t have to be unscientific to make beautiful art, to write beautiful things.

If you need proof: Twain, Adams, Vonnegut, McEwen, Sagan, Shakespeare, Dickens. For a start.

— Tim Minchin, “Occasional Address” (UWA graduation; “9 life lessons”), Lesson 5. Transcript · UWA summary

Using these distinctions helps us avoid treating an opinion as a fact or dismissing a well-supported theory as “just a theory.” SOL applies this lens across all our topics.

Books and texts per topic

Great books and key texts for each SOL topic are listed at the bottom of each topic page. This hub is the central place to find them all.

Browse all topics — each topic page ends with a “Books & texts” section and links back here.

We add titles as we go. Suggest a book or text for a topic.

Lectures

Scientific papers with summaries

Hypothesis, opinion, theory, fact — a short explainer

Lectures

Scientific papers with summaries

Hypothesis, opinion, theory, fact — a short explainer

Books and texts per topic

Read it. Think about it. Decide for yourself.