We had a Bookbuzz session with a client, using “The invisible gorilla”. The book about the illusion of knowledge, confidence, attention, memory, prediction, cause and effect, expertise and intuition. Basically, if you believe this book, we don’t know what we are doing. A scientific version of Emotionomics. Very interesting.
Stories and fact
About stories getting in the way of the scientific facts. It takes a long, long time to neutralise a good story. Which why social media and media, in general, is something you need to watch. PR companies should read this book. Spin works (particularly if you are the first).
Illusions
Very heavy on science. About the illusion of women and multitasking (no scientific evidence), the existence of the 6th sense (no scientific evidence), train your brain games good for brain development (no evidence, going for a walk is more beneficial). They don’t like Malcolm Gladwell, in their view a typical example of story versus scientific fact (Blink, the illusion of intuition). Nice anti-book to “Blink” (we like anti books as it stimulates more debate, more debate gets more intellectual juices flowing and as a result better solutions and ideas arise).
Future minds
Even had a touch of “Future minds” when they talk about the mind as a web browser.
You can’t trust science
The issue they ignore is that we can’t even trust science. Every research that concludes for example that computer games are good for you is countered by other scientific research. I can give you 3 books that state gaming is good (happy to supply the titles) and 3 that say they are bad. What is without a doubt that businesses should watch gaming. From a design perspective (Fun Inc) or from a technology and innovation perspective (Flash Foresight).
Don’t believe everything you read, hear or see
The conclusion of “The invisible gorilla”? Don’t believe everything you read, hear or see. Develop a critical mind. What did the client get out of the session? Self-awareness, stimulating discussion, learning, ideas, knowledge, bonding, cultural glue and an edge on the less aware competitors.
