How do we think, and how much of how we think is understood by contemporary science? What is consciousness, anyway? Machio Kaku, in his Future of the Mind (2014), covers a lot of ground. I draw out three things:. A history of neuroscience which has important lessons for people who listen to science-backed advice. Kaku’s model of consciousness, which places … Read more
Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf explores the disappearance of deep reading and charts what we have lost. Then, suggests how we might get it back. Three lessons: 1- Reading is complicated neurologically. One word involves more or less the whole brain in a 400ms dance. Neuroimaging can’t keep up with more. 2- Deep, slow, … Read more
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari explores our chaotic and unpredictable past as a species, in an attempt to open up how we think about the present and the future. Three lessons are presented: 1- Our development from insignificant creatures 2.5 million years ago to where we are now was enabled primarily by language – shared … Read more
Richard Layard’s Happiness (2005) was about the ‘new’ science of happiness. Depressingly, it feels current and we all need reminding of three things: Want to know more? This blog post is part of a series I am making called Reading For The Aspirational Self. Don’t think of this as book summaries – I’m not doing that. Instead, I’m drawing out … Read more
How much do you really know? The Knowledge Illusion by Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman suggests that you know a lot less than you think you do. It’s most valuable interventions are within and surrounding cognitive science; but there are lessons of value for you all, too. Particularly if you were educated recently and think humans use reason rationally and progress individually or … Read more
Nassem Taleb’s Skin in the Game argues, among other things, that much of our knowledge about people comes from small scale studies and is then generalized to “Americans”, or even “humans”. Taleb exposes some of the flaws behind this method of reasoning. He argues that instead of listening to social scientists, we’d be better listening … Read more
You all know, I’m sure, that 95% of statistics are made up on the spot. But can we trust those that are published in scientific journals and circulated elsewhere? Should we change our behavior when a particular study seems to recommend it? Probably not, argues Jordan Ellenberg. How Not to be Wrong is a book … Read more
Empathy is a skill: something you can improve with the right practices. This is one of the fundamental arguments of Jamil Zaki’s War for Kindness. Those who partake in regular meditation see measurable growth in their empathy, emotional intelligence and attention span. Just reading this argument might even shift you to being slightly more empathetic. … Read more