Thinking Quotes

“The evidence reviewed here shows not only that reasoning falls quite short of reliably delivering rational beliefs and rational decisions. It may even be, in a variety of cases, detrimental to rationality. Reasoning can lead to poor outcomes, not because humans are bad at it, but because they systematically strive for arguments that justify their beliefs or their actions. This explains the confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and reason-based choice, among other things.”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics

“Our brains trick us into thinking that we have Moral Truth on our side when in fact we don’t, and blind us to important truths that our brains were not designed to appreciate.”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics

“We live in the shadow of a great lie, and by the time we figure out that it is a lie we are closing in on death and have become irrelevant consumers, and a new generation of young and relevant consumers takes our place in the great chain of shopping.”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics

“Our conscious experience arises out of the laws of nature, the states of our brain, and our entanglement with the world.”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics

“Judgments based on intuition seem mysterious because intuition doesn’t involve explicit knowledge. It doesn’t involve declarative knowledge about facts. Therefore, we can’t explicitly trace the origins of our intuitive judgments. They come from other parts of our knowing. They come from our tacit knowledge and so they feel magical. Intuition sometimes feels like we have ESP, but it isn’t magical—it’s really a consequence of the experience we’ve built up.”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics

“What you see is all there is.”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics

“optimization under constraints,” and many Nobel prizes have been awarded in this area. Using the concept of bounded rationality”
― John Brockman, Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets – Expert Perspectives on the Mind, Morality, and Ethics