What, Why & How do we Know ?
Sam Harris conversation with Thomas Metzinger in the Waking Up Podcast. Hat tip to Terry Waites for the link as a conversation starter: Brain dump only whilst listening (few sentences / little editing) : In usual “naive” Sam Harris way the conversation skips superficially across many topics, and Metzinger is himself highly politically motivated. These days … Continue reading “Progress in Dialogue – Thomas Metzinger meets Sam Harris”
Drs Alice Roberts and Michael Mosely on BBC2 Horizon today 29th September. Just rough personal notes here, whilst watching: Vive la différence, I usually say 😉 Hmmm. Nothing is “hard” wired. Some stuff is pre-wired, genetically and in foetal development, neurally and hormonally, and a great deal is infant developed by stereotypical “encouragement”, and a lot more is … Continue reading “Male & Female Brain Differences, Again @DrAliceRoberts”
Great to see Roy Harper on Jools Holland’s Tuesday preview of his Friday “Later” show last night – seems odd to have a 30 minute preview of what is only a one hour show anyway – wonder if this is going to become the norm. Roy Harper finally returns to the BBC in his 70th … Continue reading “Songs of Love & Loss”
Old question, some new thoughts. Are leaders born or created ? Leadership innate or learned ?
Noticed these two recently … Daniel Goleman author of Emotional Intelligence on the innate good Samaritan reflex on the significance of just noticing, paying attention, rather than being self-absorbed. Rang bells thanks to a recent MoQ.Discuss thread which asked moral questions about finding a “drunk” on the sidewalk. Most impressive is this talk by Isabel … Continue reading “More TED Talks”
Two current items here. The dawning realisation that less is more – less e-mail equals more / better communication. Management by walking around, water-cooler conferences, walk-over or pick-up the phone and talk …. those were topical learning points even back when I did my MBA 20 years ago. Unrelated except for the word “less”, is … Continue reading “Less is … perhaps the wrong word.”
I’ve not yet finished reading Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” – great 14th century murder mystery with philosophers, inquisitors and church leaders thrown in – hard to spot where fact ends and fiction starts … anyway the point is I’ve also just received and started reading the 2nd edition (2002) of Nils Brunsson’s “The Organization … Continue reading “Managing Hypocrisy”
Been reading Pinker, Dennett, Rousseau and Rawls in the break. Forming a view of rationalisation as compression (after simple equals powerful idea). Pinker refers to the entire left side (?) of the brain as the “baloney generator” designed to produce convincing sounding “arguments” in difficult situations. Humans have an innate comfort with the “rational” and … Continue reading “Rationalisation as Compression”