WHAT WE'RE READING In the latest project of the brainy powerhouse edge.org, editor John Brockman dangled a tantalizing question before 165 public intellectuals: What scientific concept would improve everyone’s cognitive toolkit [1]

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[ Fri. Feb. 24. 2012 ]

The answers, which come predominantly from scientists or social scientists, make for fascinating reading. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman thinks that we often fall prey to the “focusing illusion,” in which problems that we are thinking about seem more grave the more we think about them. Yale psychologist Paul Bloom says we need to adopt scientific reasoning in daily thinking. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen suggests that we often lose sight of the fact that most problems we face are so complex that they defy simple definition.

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