This is a weekly blog that puts forward my thoughts, and my point of view.
You may agree with some. And probably disagree with most. And we can agree to disagree. After all, wouldn't life be boring if we all thought the same way.
It seems strange to talk about science and perceptions in the same sentence. I've always believed that science is based on the latest knowledge and there cannot be difference of opinions on the subject. The experts discuss and come u with what is widely accepted as scientific fact.
And yet, today there's multiple views on what seems to me to be indisputable science. And yet even something like Climate Change which is undisputed in the scientific world has almost half of non scientists disagree. And this is where perceptions about science.
This talk by Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd shows why this happens. And listening will give an appreciation not only of why this happens but also give an insight that may lead to changing some of the perception we hold, albeit unknowingly.
3 kinds of bias that shape your worldview Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd
What shapes our perceptions (and misperceptions) about science? In an
eye-opening talk, meteorologist J. Marshall Shepherd explains how
confirmation bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect and cognitive dissonance
impact what we think we know -- and shares ideas for how we can replace
them with something much more powerful: knowledge.
Lately, coming to think of it, always, I never seem to find time to do what I consider important things. And yet seem to find time to do thing I like. Such as watching TV.
I've been trying to find ways to find time. And then I came across this talk. Where "Laura Vanderkam shatters the myth that there just isn’t enough time in the week for working professionals to live happy, balanced and productive lives."
And this line from the talk stood out as so true, "We don't build the lives we want by saving time. We build the lives we want, and then time saves itself."
How to gain control of your free time Laura Vanderkam
There are 168 hours in each week. How do we find time for what matters most? Time management expert Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives, and she's discovered that many of us drastically overestimate our commitments each week, while underestimating the time we have to ourselves. She offers a few practical strategies to help find more time for what matters to us, so we can "build the lives we want in the time we've got."
I first heard of Raymond Loewy last week in the "MAYA" talk by Derek Thomson who credited Loewy with MAYA.
Naturally, I was intrigued and wanted to find out more. I'm sure you too will love knowing more about the man and his work.
Raymond Loewy, Father of Industrial Design a CBS News Presentation, 1979
Designed Different- Raymond Loewy
One of the greatest minds of the 20th Century, Raymond Loewy the father of Streamline design, from the Cold Spot refrigerator to Sky Lab, his design was everywhere. He's most remembered for the amazing car designs he fostered. Dub version of 20th Century Fox propels us through this cavalcade of genius.
In anything new we do we often ask ourselves, whether our audience will like it. Will it be popular and most importantly Is there a formula for popularity, that can be used during the creation process.
And while intuitively it seemed like that there probably are some patterns I was surprised that there's an answer to "Why do we like what we like?"
The four-letter code to selling anything Derek Thompson
Why do we like what we like? Raymond Loewy, the father of industrial design, had a theory. He was the all-star 20th-century designer of the Coca-Cola fountain and Lucky Strike pack; the modern sports car, locomotive, Greyhound bus and tractor; the interior of the first NASA spaceship; and the egg-shaped pencil sharpener. How did one man understand what consumers wanted from so many different areas of life? His grand theory of popularity was called MAYA: Most advanced yet acceptable. He said humans are torn between two opposing forces: neophilia, a love of new things; and neophobia; a fear of anything that’s too new. Hits, he said, live at the perfect intersection of novelty and familiarity. They are familiar surprises. In this talk, I’ll explain how Loewy’s theory has been validated by hundreds of years of research — and how we can all use it to make hits.
In the last few weeks in the midst of a pandemic, I've been amazed by people disbelieving what I thought was obvious. And backed by almost all countries, scientists, doctors, ... Not only that, they had arguments as to how all of those people were wrong and they were right. That's because some of them had originally had another opinion and ow changed it. So no one knew anything. And Yet, somehow they did. Many of these were in my mind intelligent, rational people in almost every aspect of their lives. Except when it came to objectively make decisions which had a political or religious tinge to it. And while they all maintained that they were objective, they were mostly unable to cite any data and mostly based their thinking on either partisan television or radio or social media. I was baffled. How can this happen.
It seemed like the fountain of all knowledge is also the fountain of ignorance. You can find almost every belief you want. And even when you have no beliefs, based on your leanings, the ubiquitous search engines will find you things that map to your way of thinking.
The question is how interested are you in learning the facts or the truth. If you are, you can find it relatively easily by ensuring that the source of you data is non-partisan and has no agenda. Another way of ensuring that the data you are using is by checking out the data provided by both sides and coming to your own conclusion. Typically partisan media will use selective data to try to make their point. Expanding the selection and ignoring the conclusions while making your own almost always leads you to the objective truth. And only if you objectively without any firm opinions and with a willingness to change them based on the data.
Two very interesting talks gives an insight into our behavior, our thinking and our illusions.
Why do we believe things that aren't true? Philip Fernbach
It seems like we're living in an epidemic of false belief. Clearly the other side just doesn’t have all the facts, right? Or are they really that stupid? In this fascinating and hilarious talk, cognitive scientist Philip Fernbach peels back the layers of what we really know and reveals some surprising truths about the human mind.
The Knowledge Illusion Kyle interviews Steven Sloman, Professor in the school of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. Steven is co-author of The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone and Causal Models: How People Think about the World and Its Alternatives. Steven shares his perspective and research into how people process information and what this teaches us about the existence of and belief in fake news.
