Ash talks about the deep complexities of doing fact finding and ‘proper’ research.
Category: Notes
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Paul Bloom: Why Do We Like What We Like?
Bloom said it well: “When you come to understand something, when you make sense of it and when you get pleasure from it, you’re responding not merely to what you’re looking at, not merely the physical features of the thing but to your beliefs about it: where you think it came from, who touched it, how it was made, what its deeper essence is.” -
Robert Trivers: Why Do We Deceive Ourselves?
An interesting delve into many of the ways and reasons that we deceive ourselves including the facts that deception starts in utero, the smarter the child the more often they lie and -
Matthew Taylor: Left Brain, Right Brain
Taylor discusses the dichotomy those of us who enjoy democracy. At the same time we say we want to help others, we also suggest spending other people’s money instead of our own. He proposes that we change the content of our political discussions.
My favorite part: recapping the studies that show that we tend to associate our successes with our skills and our failure with circumstances while we do the reverse in analyzing others.RSA Animate – Left brain, right brain
Matthew Taylor – Left Brain, Right Brain: Human nature and political values -
“Feynman’s Rainbow” by Leonard Mlodinow
Part biography (on both Feynman and Mlodinow) and part philosophical exploration, Mlodinow details his quest to find self-understanding in his physics related career endeavors.
Interesting tidbit: String theory, something that we are just starting to grapple with, was mocked and missed for years before finally getting the last formula it needed to make mathematical sense.