Unique and saddening travel experience
I-75 was completely shut down north bound. Fortunately, I was going south bound. The unique thing is this was not due to your usual accidents, construction or VIP visits. Found out that a 48 year old man from Mississippi had climbed over the overpass and jumped down to the highway and got smashed to his death by a trailer! What a tragedy! š
That was a little jarring
Have you ever experienced this?
Today Beth Varner and Joseph Claeys from Riverside Insights gave a talk where nearly 4,000 people attended.
I was trying to think thru in my mind – what does 4,000 people mean? I remember attending events in the past in a very successful company where more people would show up to hear folks from the company speak.
But then, I realized something. Riverside Insights is only 250 people strong. That would imply that for every 1 employee, 16 people came to listen to what Beth and Joe had to say about the work they do.
Two of the biggest companies I have worked for – both multi billion dollar companies – had nearly 6,000 people. This would mean attracting 100,000 people to an event. The smallest company I have worked for was a 25 people startup. This would mean attracting 400 people.
Never, ever experienced something like this. Not even close.
Have you?
One of these days I am determined to find out why is that what those 250 employees in Riverside Insights folks do or how Beth and Joe explains what they do – so important to the world.
Till then, I am going to marvel at them!
From the bartender’s corner: Guava Coconut Rum cocktail
Picked this recipe up from Melanie Milhorat of New York from Taste of Home. The drinks tastes great and even as importantly, looks great.
This cocktail is stirred not shaken. Fill three fourth of a stirring glass with ice and then pour two teaspoons of lemon juice, two ounces of coconut rum, two ounces of guava juice, a dash of syrup and couple of dashes of bitters. Stir it thoroughly and then pour it in a glass with a few pieces of ice already in it.
It warmed up a little
Learned the lesson from yesterday. Did not layer up enough for a 45 degree motorbike ride (the wind made it worse). Today, I was perhaps overlayered. Took a very circuitous route to my weekend afternoon coffee place, enjoyed some coffee aged in bourbon barrels and caught up on Montaigne.
Check out my answer when the lady asked me what name she should write on my cup!
Sunday morning run
Book Review – The Intelligence Trap by David Robson
The Intelligence Trap – Why smart people make dumb mistakes.
The title itself is enough to pick up the book from a shelf. Once you open it, you cannot keep it down. David’s story telling style (the story on the very first page will get you) and the explanation of research to lay it down to a layman why smart people have such dichotomy of deeply held beliefs – from vaccination to climate to evolution and so on is remarkable.
The book not only explains some of the evolutionary reasons of why and how our biases lead us down these parting ways but also spends quite a few pages explaining how you can try not falling in these traps.
Here are some interesting ideas from the book to pique your interest….
1. Core thesis is when we talk of intelligent people – we reflect on āanalyticalā intelligence. But judgment requires two other kinds of abilities – ācreative intelligenceā – ability to invest, imagine and suppose and āpractical intelligenceā – ability to plan and execute an idea to overcome lifeās messy, ill formed problems in a pragmatic way – which needs one to have metacognition (judging your own strength and weakness) and read motives of others (often referred to as social or emotional intelligence)
2. Intelligent and educated people are less likely to learn from their own mistakes, are less able to recognize the flaws in their own logic and when they do err, they build elaborate arguments to justify their reasoning.
3. A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices
4. Academic tests are timed, usually. We are taught that speed of reasoning is a quality of our minds. Hesitation and indecision is undesirable. Being āslowā is stupid. And yet, hesitation, indecision and being slow is exactly what is required to understand oneās own error in judgment.
5. People with high IQs have shown to be equally likely to be in financial distress (miss mortgage payment, bankruptcy, credit card debt) as lower IQ people!!
6. āMyside biasā (confirmation bias) is highest when it speaks to our sense of identity. This explains why we come to very quick decisions (System 1 – or Fast Thinking) when it comes to opinions on religion, politics, nationality or even sports teams! Smart people do not apply their superior intelligence for truth seeking so much as promoting their interests or opinions. Greater education and intelligence simply helps people to justify their beliefs that match their points of views. This explains anti-vaxxers, climate deniers and evolution deniers. They are as intelligent as the other side.
7. Our beliefs are first borne out of emotional needs. Intellect kicks in later to rationalize.
8. Human thought are less about truth seeking. It is about persuading others to our point of view and be skeptical of the other side (most likely from evolution). Thus biased reasoning is not a side effect of increased brainpower – it is the reason for it.
9. āExpertsā come with two big challenges – their inability to see the other side (goes against their sense of identity – see above) and others tend to believe them even when what they are saying has nothing to do with with their area of expertise. āThe fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world, the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubtā – Bertrand Russell. Experts confuse their current level of understanding with their prior peak level of understanding. Therefore, they find it very difficult to to say āI do not knowā.
10. Hearing the same opinion from different people has the same ability to convince you as hearing the same opinion from the same person repeatedly!!!
Sometimes it is funny because it is too close to the truth…
… like most Dilbert cartoons!!
Anyways, last night I was talking to a senior of mine from school who I have respected all my life not only for his superior level of intelligence but also his thoughtfulness and rational thinking and the ability to argue both sides of a debate..
(while discussing the opinion of the masses….)
“So, how do you explain the recent disbelief in science?”, I asked.
“That is not new. It has always been there.”
“Really?”
“Yes”
“Why do you say that?”
“If you can believe in God, you can believe in any conspiracy theory. And we have been believing in God for a very long time.”
I burst out laughing. And kept smiling the rest of the evening – not just because how he put it – but I realized that there was an element of truth to it!!