The method
What is actually happening underneath?
Whatever the subject, I start with the source, test the key assumption, and show enough evidence for someone else to check my reasoning.
How I work
- 01
Read the source.
Start with the filing, dated record, study, or direct observation—not a summary.
- 02
Find the assumption everything depends on.
State what must be true for the argument to hold.
- 03
Name what would prove it wrong.
Write down the evidence that would change the conclusion.
- 04
Connect the evidence.
Put the sources in an order another person can follow.
- 05
Show the sources.
For each claim, mark where evidence ends and inference begins.
Different forms. The same question.
- 01Financial statement
- 02Business operations
- 03Medicine-record index
- 04Proposed biological map