In the reading by Bacon I made a few connections to previous texts and life experiences. For example, in the 8th aphorism he's saying that we all study previous sciences but we need to learn methods of discovering and investigating new/unclear things. I think Columbia does a good job of this by making Frontiers of Science part of the Core, since we are being taught to make reasonable estimates backed by science even if we are not science majors. Aphorism 46 reminded me of Science of Psychology, the introductory psychology course, in which we learned about confirmation bias and that we "neglect and pass over our failures, though it be much more common" and that "human understanding is most excited by immediate understanding". It's also true that sometimes when reviewing for exams, we will make flashcards but when we forget the answer and peek at the back of the flashcard, we will think "yeah! I knew that!" when we actually didn't know (there was an experiment or at least passage I read about this). Another thing is that there are two different kinds of contemplation - individual, which distracts and weakens understanding, and general composition, which stupefies and relaxes it. "These two species of contemplation must therefore be interchanged, and each employed in its turn, in order to render the understanding at once penetrating" - this reminds me of the concept of being both a fox and a lion from Machiavelli, employing the best depending on the situation.
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