Monthly Archives: November 2011

Augmented Cognition & Information Overload

There is ample (and growing) evidence that human cognitive limitations, some of which may be caused by mismatches between the EEA (the environment of evolutionary adaptation) and today, can lead to information overload conditions that invoke heuristics and biases that … Continue reading

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John Maeda, RISD & High Bandwidth Relationships

There’s been lot’s of talk lately about John Maeda‘s rocky relationship with the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was appointed president in 2007.  Digital maven Maeda is not someone that the more “analog” institution understands well, and recently … Continue reading

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Overcoming Political Polarization

Ethan Zuckerman‘s recent piece on the realities of overcoming political polarization weighs in on the recent New York Times poll that found that Americans are in a particularly pessimistic mood about the future. Zuckerman seems to agree with Fareed Zakaria, … Continue reading

Posted in Altruism, Cooperation, Empathy, Identity, Institutional Design, Inter-Group Conflict, Narrative | 1 Comment

Poke the Box

Seth Godin‘s latest “bite-sized,” one-sitting serving, Poke the Box, does what Godin does best – deliver a simple idea or two in a very direct, accessible way.  This time, its the well-worn, but nevertheless important, idea that much of success … Continue reading

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A Recipe for Collective Action

Most of us, somewhere back in the receding memories of our education, were exposed to the Prisoner’s Dilemma, that iconic game theoretic formulation that introduced us to the idea of a public good. If we learned this in an economics … Continue reading

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Ken Gergen on Social Constructionism

Ken Gergen, professor at Swarthmore College and president of the Taos Institute, provides a very nice introduction to social constructionism. Not a philosophy or a belief system, social constructionism, for Gergen, is more a way of talking about or writing … Continue reading

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The Checklist Manifesto

Atul Gawande begins his latest book, The Checklist Manifesto, by bringing to our attention an epistemological crisis of sorts. In his view, most of our history has been marred by errors of ignorance, which came about because we just didn’t … Continue reading

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