In this Thursday Thought, we examine the perils of unquestioned mental models. Using the metaphor of monarch butterflies’ ancient migratory paths, we explore how businesses, like Blockbuster, can cling to outdated practices. Learn why it’s essential to challenge ingrained patterns, adapt to new realities, and foster innovation in a rapidly changing world.
Join Annie Duke to explore her bestseling book, Thinking in Bets, linking NFL strategies, poker psychology, and decision-making in business. Learn how to improve decision quality, manage uncertainty, and apply cognitive science to innovation and risk assessment.
Why We Can’t Admit We’re Wrong: A Deep Dive with Carol Tavris
Have you ever clung to a belief even when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary? You’re not alone! In this episode, Aidan McCullen chats with renowned social psychologist Carol Tavris, co-author of the groundbreaking book “Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me).”
Together, they delve into the fascinating world of cognitive dissonance, self-justification, and memory. You’ll discover:
Why admitting mistakes is so darn hard (even for the best of us!)
How our memories can be surprisingly malleable
Real-world examples from law enforcement, politics, and even parenting
How these insights can help us all be more humble, critical thinkers
This episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to understand the human tendency to rewrite history and the importance of embracing the possibility of being wrong.
This episode features Dan Ariely, author of ‘Misbelief, what makes rational people believe irrational things’, focusing on the psychology behind misinformation and belief in conspiracy theories.
Discover Ellen Langer’s transformative insights on mindfulness and positive psychology for boosting creativity and innovation, on the innovation show.
An Interview with Ellen Langer: The Power of Mindfulness in Health and Life. Ellen Langer was the first woman to be tenured in psychology at Harvard. Known worldwide as the mother of mindfulness and the mother of Positive Psychology
[TLDR: Adaptability in the face of change is paramount for leaders seeking long-term success. Yet, a cognitive bias known as “target fixation” can inadvertently obstruct the ability of business leaders to spot crucial signals of necessary—even lifesaving—change in the business environment.]
It is a pleasure to welcome the author of The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness, Mark Solms. We share terms like Markov Blankets, The Free Energy Principle, Homeostasis, and Entropy.
While scams and fraud have been around as long as human society, what happens when a scammer is no longer a person but an AI? As in Esperanza’s case, trust is often the scammer’s most potent weapon. This elderly woman, driven by her religious obsession, gave her life savings to someone she believed was divine. With its capacity to learn and adapt, AI could potentially exploit that trust on a much larger scale.
In The Hidden Spring, our guest Mark Solms does not dive too deeply into Karl Friston’s mathematics. As you will discover, he summarises its implications, describing Friston’s free energy as a quantifiable measure of how a system models the world and how it behaves. This notion leads to a very different idea of consciousness from Descartes’s reason-centric version that set up the puzzling dualism of “mind” and “matter”, a la Damasio’s Descartes Error. Mark explores the “cortical fallacy,” which refers to his view that neuroscientists who have argued that the “seat of consciousness” is in the cortex are wrong. Recent neuroscience has shed light on where this is.
As Mark points out, damage to just two cubic millimetres of the upper brainstem will “obliterate all consciousness.”
So where does it “Spring” from?