#548 - Tim Harford - Why Is Thinking Clearly So Difficult?

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2022

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Tim Haafard, his
0:05.7	economist, associate member of Nuffield College Oxford, an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical
0:11.2	Society, a journalist and an author. Humans need to be able to accurately judge the world around
0:17.5	them. With more information than ever, this should be getting easier, by the year, and yet
0:22.2	clear thinking seems to become increasingly elusive. Why are we so prone to biases,
0:28.7	and what are some of the biggest rationality blunders from history? Expect to learn why Sir Arthur
0:34.7	Conan Doyle got obsessed with photos of fairies, what everyone misunderstands about inflation,
0:40.4	the danger, indiscriminate doubt and reflexive cynicism have, the similarities between magic and
0:46.3	misinformation, why smart people get hijacked by ideology, and much more.
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	...

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