I’m Kevin Dieter, and I work at the intersection of cognition, research, and experimentation. I earned a PhD focused on understanding how people think, learn, and make decisions. My career has been motivated by a core curiosity: why do people do the things they do?
In my professional work, I tackle complex problems related to how people form habits, improve skills, and make sense of the world. I do this by defining clear goals, designing experiments, and analyzing data. The aim isn’t just to drive outcomes, but to understand why something works — or doesn’t.
Over time, a pattern started to bug me: while structured problem solving approaches are standard in academic and professional settings, we rarely apply them to everyday challenges . And yet many of the questions we face every day could benefit from this way of thinking:
- How can you tell whether a piece of advice online is trustworthy?
- What small change might improve a recipe you make every week?
- How can you accelerate progress when learning a new skill?
Thinking Empirically is my attempt to fill the gap by translating the mindset of scientific research — shaped by my 15+ years of experience — into a simple, practical playbook for everyday life. I do this by sharing accessible frameworks and real-world examples of everyday experimentation in areas like cooking, gardening, and more.
My goal is to make the tools of research more approachable, so each of us can navigate an increasingly complex world with more confidence.
Thinking Empirically 