Hi there! šāāļø
My name is Maarten. Iām a 28-year-old Dutch PhD candidate in philosophy at the Central European University, defending my dissertation in spring 2022.
In my dissertation, I look at debunking arguments: do the causal origins of our opinions somehow cast doubt on their legitimacy or objective pretenses? This relates to the contemporary discussion about post-truth, on which I’ve published some articles here. Which, in turn, relates to my current interest on all the aspects of how humans deal with information and arguments: 1) reasoning, biases and cognitive science, 2) education and knowledge management, 3) post-truth and making our digitized information environment truth-friendly.
After submitting my dissertation in December 2021, I secured a book deal to write about my idea that people are actually pretty rational in dealing with information. Rather than hopelessly biased, gullible or believe what they want to believe anyway. This is my main writing project right now. I spend the other half of my time on teaching at Radboud University, coaching people in Roam Research and interviewing people with interesting research for my podcast.
Before that, in what almost seems like a previous era, my Medium received over 100.000 monthly views and more than 50.000 people read my articles each month.
My most successful articles were those on active reading and building a Zettelkasten in Roam Research. Which is why, among other reasons, another thing I do is coach people on such things.
Relatedly, after months of hard work and years of experience and coaching, I released my online course Academic Mastery with Roam on November 1st, 2021: Learn more, connect deeper, and write better with the most advanced techniques for knowledge work. It has been taken by over 100 students and received very positive reviews. More information here.
In my spare time, I like – love – to just hang out with my friends and my girlfriend. I also force myself to run and ride my bike at modest speeds and lift some modest weights every now and then. I’m a fan of craft beer and strategy games such as Civilization and Humankind, and an avid user of Roam. I’ve helped students breeze through their thesis with it, and can help you too. I live in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, which is my favorite city of the galaxy.
Let’s keep in touch! ā¬