Examines the nature of knowledge, tools we use to understand the world and create knowledge, elements that help shape our perspectives and our values.
Key questions:
How do I create new knowledge?
How do biases and assumptions shape my understanding?
Can we trust our own eyes? The science of “motivated seeing” says not always.
Just because you said it, do you really believe it? Great visuals
If you learn something for the first time, does that make you knowledgeable?
The brain treats questions about beliefs like physical threats. Can we learn to disarm it?
Are emotions hard-wired, or cultural constructions?
YouTube Channel exploring philosophical ideas and questions from a wide variety of AOKs
Explores everything from quantum physics to the genius of Super Mario Brothers.
Most people have grossly inaccurate views of the world we live in. When we’re asked simple questions about global trends, we systematically get the answers wrong and see the world to be much worse than it really is. In Factfulness, Hans Rosling presents 10 dramatic instincts that distort our perceptions, as well as detailed facts and statistics about the real state of our world today. In our Factfulness summary, we’ll explain the 10 key mental filters and how to recognize/manage them to develop a fact-based worldview, to avoid unnecessary stress and improve our ability to make sound decisions.
• The Gap Instinct: We tend to divide things into 2 distinct groups and imagine a gap between them.
• The Negativity Instinct: We tend to instinctively notice the bad more than the good.
• The Straight Line Instinct: When we see a line going up steadily, we tend to assume the line will continue to go up in the foreseeable future.
• The Fear Instinct: We tend to perceive the world to be scarier than it really is.
• The Size Instinct: We tend to see things out of proportion, over-estimating (a) the importance of a single event/person that’s visible to us, and (b) the scale of an issue based on a standalone number.
• The Generalization Instinct: We tend to wrongly assume that everything or everyone in a category is similar.
• The Destiny Instinct: We tend to assume that (a) the destinies of people, cultures, countries etc. are predetermined by certain factors, and (b) such factors are fixed and unchanging, i.e. their destinies are fixed.
• The Single Perspective Instinct: We tend to focus on single causes or solutions, which are easier to grasp and make our problems seem easier to solve.
• The Blame Instinct: When something goes wrong, we instinctively blame it on someone or something.
• The Urgency Instinct: We tend to rush into a problem or opportunity for fear that there’s no time and we may be too late.
Click here to hear Hans Rosling give his 2013 Ted Talk.
