Phil McKinney
Share
12/23/2025
I just finished Part One of my Thinking 101 series. Eight episodes on thinking skills that never get taught: logical reasoning, causal thinking, mental models, and more.
The response caught me off guard. More engagement than I expected. More people reaching out to say this was exactly what they needed.
So now I'm wondering: Should there be a Part Two?
I recorded a short video reflecting on the series and what might come next:
👉 https://youtu.be/e4rghbLaNUY
I also wrote about how the series works (YouTube + Substack together) and where we could go from here:
👉 https://philmckinney.substack.com/p/knowing-how-to-think-isnt-enough
Want to help shape what Part Two becomes? Take a 2-minute survey:
👉 https://forms.gle/VXM4FeCuVqZdBUZK6
Taking a break for the holidays. Back in January.
And if you're heading to CES in Las Vegas the first week of January, send me a message. I'd love to connect in person.
Happy holidays, everyone.
One million seconds is 11 days ago.
One billion seconds ago? Bill Clinton was president. The internet was just getting started. That was 1994.
One trillion seconds ago, humans hadn’t invented farming yet. We were still painting on cave walls.
After 30 years of watching executives make billion-dollar decisions, I’ve learned that the biggest manipulation isn’t about facts—it’s about scale. The people who control the money know something you don’t: your brain literally cannot process the difference between a billion and a trillion.
So they use them interchangeably. And you nod along.
This is what I call “scale blindness”—and it’s weaponized against you every single day. In boardrooms. In budget meetings. In political speeches.
Every time someone casually tosses around numbers with nine or twelve zeros, they’re banking on your brain giving up.
The fix? Convert to time. Seconds don’t lie.
Once you see this pattern, you can’t unsee it. And that’s exactly what the manipulators are afraid of.
What’s a number you’ve heard recently that suddenly looks different with this framework? Drop it in the comments—let’s do the math together. 👇
Full breakdown + more decision frameworks in this week’s Studio Notes. Link in bio.
Also on YouTube: I go deeper into why smart people fall for scale manipulation (and how to stop).
12/03/2025
Quick test:
One million seconds = 11 days.
One billion seconds = 31 years.
Feel that gap? Your brain can't. And that's exactly what they're counting on.
When politicians throw "billion" and "trillion" around in the same sentence like they're comparable? They're banking on your intuition being broken.
That "4 out of 5 dentists recommend" claim you've heard your whole life? Complete manipulation. Once you see HOW they did it, you'll never trust a statistic the same way again.
This week's Thinking 101 shows you how to fight back.
✅🎬 Watch this week's video: https://youtu.be/kN7nPTEwQwk
đź“© Read this week's Studio Notes to experience how I learned numerical literacy the hard way. https://philmckinney.substack.com/p/they-accused-me-of-fraud-it-made
♻️ What's the most suspicious statistic you've seen lately? Drop it below.
Numerical Thinking: How to Find the Truth When Numbers Lie Quick—which is more dangerous: the thing that kills 50,000 Americans every year, or the thing that kills 50?Your brain says the first one, obviously. The dat...
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Category
Contact the business
Telephone
Address
Longmont, CO
80504
