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16. Deep Time:
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the creation of Twitter than to the creation of the Great Pyramid. The T-Rex lived closer in time to us than to the Stegosaurus. These facts (and evolution) are counterintuitive because our minds cannot grasp the vastness of time.
Everyone, a New MEGATHRE...
@G_S_Bhogal on Twitter
Daniel Pink’s bestselling Drive was one of the books on our bookshelf, as it shared research pointing to mastery, autonomy, and purpose as the underpinnings of motivation. Simply put, mastery is when you become good at something, autonomy is when you have some measure of control, and purpose is when you’re doing something for a reason that is authentic to you.
Likewise, public policy is not a parlor game of prediction; it is about long-term choices rooted in thoughtful consideration of costs and alternatives. Asking crowds to guess about specific events in short-term, mental dart–throwing matches just isn’t much help when trying to navigate in difficult policy waters. “Will Bashar Assad of Syria use chemical weapons at some point in 2013” is an even bet, like putting a chip on one color in roulette. It’s a yes-or-no question, and at some point, you’ve either won or lost the bet. It’s not the same question as “Why would Bashar Assad use chemical weapons?” and it is light-years away from the dilemma of “What should America do if Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons?” The Internet, however, conflates all three of these questions, and it turns every complicated issue into a poll with a one-click radio button offering a quick solution.
The Death of Expertise
Tom Nichols
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