Romanticization
Romanticization provides an ideal, but misleading, view of the world. Unfortunately, we see not simply a romantic notion, but a dangerous human illusion.
Hammer Thinking
Us vs Them
‘Us vs Them’ is pretty simple, from a strategic standpoint. When we decide that another person is similar to us, it means we are looking for cooperation, for peace. And when we decide that someone is different, we are looking for conflict and competition and ultimately, war.
Critical Thinking as a Teachable Skill
The world is changing rapidly – politically, socially, technologically – and we have repeatedly considered here how we are ill-equipped to deal with it. One of the major problems blocking progress is one of authority vs critical thinking. All of us, professionals included, often defer to authority without critically thinking about the complexities of a … [Read more…]
The Gus Levy Syndrome
We are at a particularly contentious point in American politics. There are any number of problems, wars, terrorists, economic upheavals, environmental damage, medical battles, Constitutional disagreements, and squabbles about how to limit government and corporation. In all of them, there is a lot of finger-pointing. It’s a mess. Part of the mess is that we … [Read more…]
Cajun Juggling & Univariate Thinking
In high school it was a great surprise for me to discover that the United States is overwhelmingly protestant. Living in Cajun country, I had simply assumed that most of the country was Roman Catholic. There are so many fascinating quirks and oddities that living in a ‘foreign’ culture offers. There are the differences of … [Read more…]
The New US Founders
In one of the recent presidential debates, a panelist asked Ben Carson what he would do about ‘grey’ drugs, life-saving medicines that have recently seen astronomical price inflation. My ears perked up. For some time I have wondered about how we might resolve the tension, and where the balance point lies, between the considerations of … [Read more…]
In Praise of Prejudice
We think that prejudice, in and of itself, is a problem. But we, all of us, are constantly prejudiced about what is going on in the world around us, not just about people but about business, technology, and government. If we were not ‘prejudiced’, if we did not expect certain patterns, we could not function.
The real problem is that when our initial impression – our prejudice – becomes our only impression. The problem isn’t prejudice; the problem is closed-mindedness.
On Panaceas
One of the problems I see in so much of human activity is that we tend to conflate value with perfection. Too often, we think that ‘good’ means ‘flawless.’ I see this in medicine and biology, where some of my colleagues speak in hushed tones about the earlier scholars who generated fundamental ideas. It’s hero … [Read more…]
Label Thinking
In previous posts we have been looking at functional definitions of liberal and conservative: not which is right or wrong, but when they are right or wrong. Part of our problem is hammer thinking: when you’re a hammer the whole world looks like a nail or worse, it looks like a game of ideological Whack-A-Mole. … [Read more…]
Motorminds
For the sake of conversation, let’s say the human brain is like an automobile, and there are three basic models: the Corvette, the Silverado, or the amphibious Max IV 6-wheeler ATV. You get to choose. The Corvette is the sexiest, the social elite; as a mind, it’s the equivalent of, say, Carrie Fisher, easily one of … [Read more…]