Thought Experiment: How Einstein Solved Difficult Problems
Farnam Street (Shane Parrish) · 2022
"Thought experiments — structured imaginative scenarios rather than physical tests — let thinkers from Zeno to Einstein explore questions that can't be tested empirically, revealing the logical limits and implications of an idea before (or instead of) any real-world experiment."
A thought experiment is a structured imagined scenario used to explore the logical consequences of an idea when a physical experiment is impossible, unethical, or unnecessary — 19th-century philosopher-physicist Ernst Mach argued thought experiments often precede and prepare the way for physical experiments, since we can vary imagined circumstances 'at little expense' compared to the real world.
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Second-Order Thinking
"First-level thinking says 'and then what?' once. Second-level thinking keeps asking."