Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

by Andrew McAfee

Buster Benson, a product manager at the software company Slack, came up with what we think is a great way to group these biases and keep in mind the problems they pose for us:# 1. Information overload sucks, so we aggressively filter. . . . [But] some of the information we filter out is actually useful and important. 2. Lack of meaning is confusing, so we fill in the gaps. . . . [But] our search for meaning can conjure illusions. We sometimes imagine details that were filled in by our assumptions, and construct meaning and stories that aren’t really there.** 3. [We] need to act fast lest we lose our chance, so we jump to conclusions. . . . [But] quick decisions can be seriously flawed. Some of the quick reactions and decisions we jump to are unfair, self-serving, and counter-productive. 4. This isn’t getting easier, so we try to remember the important bits. . . . [But] our memory reinforces errors. Some of the stuff we remember for later just makes all of the above systems more biased, and more damaging to our thought processes.