I’ve said it here before: the human mind is not infinite. We can’t perceive everything. Even those of us who realize this can still be surprised by just how limited our perception really is.
Daniel Simons has explored how our brain sifts through reality for the important bits, and how this can sometimes end up backfiring. Together with Christopher Chabris, he wrote The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us
The book is based on an experiment he conducted, in which people failed to see a woman dressed up in a Gorilla costume.
Why? Here’s what he had to say on the subject.
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, discusses how the “social web,” a term that he coined in 1996, is making us smarter, and more distracted. He discusses the “knowledge divide” and the myth that all young people are digital wizards.
Traditional economists and financial professors like to pretend that we live in a rational world, but a growing body of evidence challenges many of these basic assumptions. Evidence from psychology demonstrates that there are limits to human rationality, and that cognitive and emotional biases are a part of the package. Thankfully, a growing number of economists and financial experts are starting to incorporate some of this knowledge into their theories.
with Matt Webb. He has a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and performs research for the Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, works as an editor for Psychologist magazine, and has done research for the BBC.
, math is a fascinating subject that can be used to evaluate almost any problem that can be solved using a series of rigid rules.
