Paths Forward

Paths Forward is CF's protocol for being open to criticism in a time-efficient way. Its premise is simple: if I'm wrong and you know it, how can I find out?

"Paths Forward is an original Critical Fallibilism idea about approaching discussion and ideas rationally. That way, if you're mistaken, and another person knows the mistake and is willing to tell you, there is a good way (path) for your error to be corrected (which moves your ideas forward to be better)."

Why it exists

• Fallibilism guarantees mistakes. Everyone has errors they don't know about.
• Other people sometimes know the answers. Especially for errors that are well-understood in their field.
• Many of those errors are fixable. No reason to stay wrong about things others have figured out.
• Without structure, criticism is wasted. Random critics, random quality, no way to tell.

Key components

1. Share your ideas publicly. Let others see and criticise.
2. Organise them clearly. Use idea trees so others can find the part they want to address.
3. Be open to correction. Especially from people you might be biased against.
4. Stay time-efficient. Don't engage every random critic for hours. Filter by content.
5. Use objective-reasoning so the reasoning stands independent of your personality.

Why "public intellectuals" matter

A public intellectual claims to use rationality to improve humanity's ideas. If they don't follow Paths Forward, they are failing their stated mission — they're hoarding their error-correction potential.

The bias trap

"If your policy is to listen to the reasoning that seems high quality to you, and ignore the rest, that means you'll stay wrong about anything you're biased about." Paths Forward is designed to bypass this trap.

"If I’m wrong, and you know it, how can I find out? If you’re wrong, and I know it, how can you find out?" — criticalfallibilism.com