Scott McCormack Blog

I plan to write a short series on “misinformation”, because I believe it is one of the major challenges we now face as a society. And I also believe that as individuals there are practical steps we can take to combat it. In this first post, I want to focus attention on where misinformation comes from. I rarely hear anyone ask the questions: Who wrote this lie? What was their motivation? Let’s start with some definitions, to be clear what we are talking about. The terms “misinformation” and “disinformation” tend to be used interchangeably. Misinformation is false information spread either knowingly or unknowingly . Disinformation is false information, spread with the knowledge it is false.   I will use the term “misinformation” because most people I see reposting false information are not aware it is false. They are not the original creators of the misinformation.   In most cases, two minutes of online research would have confirmed the information was false, and there a...

The “hobby” I spend the most time on is learning the Thai language. I have plenty of motivation: my wife is Thai; we have chosen to settle in Bangkok as our long-term home; my in-laws are Thai; most of my work colleagues and clients are Thai. My goal is to be able to converse like a native speaker. Will I ever achieve that? Who knows. But I will keep trying. In this post, I would like to highlight the learning method I have been using since the start of the pandemic. I think it might be useful for others, in their language learning endeavours. First, a little background on my time learning the language. I was first assigned to work in Bangkok about 18 years ago, for three years. At that time I has a weekly session with a tutor, and gained a basic level of speaking proficiency. I did not learn to read and write Thai at that time. That basic level of capability stayed with me, more or less, until we moved back to Bangkok in 2019. I then started sessions again with a tutor, with...