Why Is Thinking Clearly So Difficult? - Tim Harford

Tim Harford is an economist, associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a journalist and an author. Humans need to be able to accurately judge the world around them. With more information than ever, this should be getting easier by the year and yet clear thinking seems to be ever more elusive. Why are we so prone to biases and what are some of the biggest rationality blunders from history? Expect to learn why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got obsessed with photos of fairies, what everyone misunderstands about inflation, the danger indiscriminate doubt and reflexive cynicism, the similarities between magic and misinformation, why smart people get hijacked by ideology and much more... Sponsors: Get a free bag of Colima Sea Salt at http://modernwisdomsalt.com/ (discount automatically applied) Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D and Free Shipping from Athletic Greens at https://athleticgreens.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Extra Stuff: Check out Tim's website - https://timharford.com/ Buy Tim's book - https://amzn.to/3DNELvw Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #humannature #economics #psychology - 00:00 Intro 02:00 Innovations from Seth Stephens-Davidowitz & Rory Sutherland 11:50 What People Get Wrong About Inflation 17:40 The Laziness of Toxic Cynicism 25:05 How the Pandemic Impacted Trust in Experts 30:08 Negative Consequences of Growing Skepticism 34:39 How Magic Links with Misinformation 39:55 Effectiveness of Using Intuition & Feeling 51:13 Lessons from the Invention of the Bicycle 1:00:31 Introducing Tax Incentives for Having Babies 1:11:44 Where to Find Tim - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Tim HarfordguestChris Williamsonhost

Nov 5, 20221h 12mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: November 5, 2022
Duration: 1h 12m
Channel: Modern Wisdom
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Tim Harford is an economist, associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a journalist and an author. Humans need to be able to accurately judge the world around them. With more information than ever, this should be getting easier by the year and yet clear thinking seems to be ever more elusive. Why are we so prone to biases and what are some of the biggest rationality blunders from history? Expect to learn why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got obsessed with photos of fairies, what everyone misunderstands about inflation, the danger indiscriminate doubt and reflexive cynicism, the similarities between magic and misinformation, why smart people get hijacked by ideology and much more... Sponsors: Get a free bag of Colima Sea Salt at http://modernwisdomsalt.com/ (discount automatically applied) Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D and Free Shipping from Athletic Greens at https://athleticgreens.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Extra Stuff: Check out Tim's website - https://timharford.com/ Buy Tim's book - https://amzn.to/3DNELvw Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #humannature #economics #psychology - 00:00 Intro 02:00 Innovations from Seth Stephens-Davidowitz & Rory Sutherland 11:50 What People Get Wrong About Inflation 17:40 The Laziness of Toxic Cynicism 25:05 How the Pandemic Impacted Trust in Experts 30:08 Negative Consequences of Growing Skepticism 34:39 How Magic Links with Misinformation 39:55 Effectiveness of Using Intuition & Feeling 51:13 Lessons from the Invention of the Bicycle 1:00:31 Introducing Tax Incentives for Having Babies 1:11:44 Where to Find Tim - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

SPEAKERS

Tim Harford
guest
Chris Williamson
host

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Tim Harford and Chris Williamson, Why Is Thinking Clearly So Difficult? - Tim Harford explores why Clear Thinking Fails: Statistics, Experts, Emotion And Everyday Biases Tim Harford and Chris Williamson explore why thinking clearly is so hard in a world saturated with data, experts, and social media noise.

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