000 - Intro - Why you need science

Let's talk about science. You need science. You can't afford to be scientifically illiterate or ignorant in today's world. A scientific education is a toolset for living your best life. Scientific process and thinking is desirable in every career, whether you’re a plumber, doctor, artist, teacher, musician, chef, businessperson, entrepreneur, in the military, a stay-at-home-parent, a farmer, in marketing or sales, a member of a religious community...anything you can imagine, science can help you with. You can use your knowledge base to make smart decisions, to learn from your experiences, make tweaks, do better, and be better. Apart from your job, science can help you with life. If you eat or buy or cook food, then you need to understand basic nutrition, and what food is made of, and how to make food taste delicious and not grow harmful bacteria, and what effect certain foods can have on your health and happiness. Do you have a body? Do you care about or interact with someone else who has a body? Maybe you work with other people who have bodies? Basic knowledge about how bodies work can save your life, or the life of someone you love, or even the life of a total stranger. Even if you have access to good medical care, knowing some healthcare basics helps in every part of life, from preventing health problems to dealing with emergency situations. How about if you have a pet? Science can help you can better understand their behavior and how to care for them properly. If you grow plants, it helps to understand where they get their energy from, what conditions they evolved in, what traits they have, and what makes them grow well. If you want to be a better parent, science can help you in countless ways, from being able to explain how the world works when your children ask you questions, to helping you make more informed decisions, to being able to communicate with teachers, and help with homework, making the best product choices for your household shopping, organizing your living space efficiently, and understanding the possible impacts of your parenting on your kids. If you are a young person, scientific thinking and knowledge will be a tool that can help you now and throughout the entire rest of your life. Scientific thinking can make you a better person overall, but it can also protect you from being a sucker, a mark, a target of people who want to trick you, hurt you, control you, and take advantage of you. If you can think scientifically, you’ll be able to spot red flags, you’ll learn what questions to ask, and how to process the evidence that people offer to you in order to prove their points. Not right away, education takes time. But you’ll get better at it as you build your knowledge library. Just as important, science can help you know who you *can* trust, and how to verify if you are being told the truth by looking at the evidence presented. You can’t just say no to everything, and distrust everyone, you have to believe and invest in ideas and people. Just test them for reality first. Scientific knowledge can give you the power to live a longer and happier life AND keep you from being manipulated by other people, by companies, governments, fake news, social media, by giving you the tools to do truth checks on information and ideas before you decide to believe them. Join me and let's get started building your scientific knowledge base!