10 things you might think about psychology — that are wrong

How much of what you think about psychology is actually wrong? In this whistlestop tour of dis-proved science, Ben Ambridge walks through 10 popular ideas that have been proven wrong — and uncovers a few surprising truths about how our brains really work.

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Today, a single email can launch a worldwide movement. But as sociologist Zeynep Tufekci suggests, even though online activism is easy to grow, it often doesn’t last. Why? She compares modern movements — Gezi, Ukraine, Hong Kong — to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and uncovers a surprising benefit of organizing protest movements the way it happened before Twitter. Watch »
“Ebola threatens everything that makes us human,” says Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organization. And when the Ebola epidemic exploded in 2014, it caused a worldwide panic. But humanity can beat Ebola — and Aylward shares the four strategies that will help us succeed. The fight against Ebola is not yet won, he says, but it can be. Watch »

Making toast doesn’t sound very complicated — until someone asks you to draw the process, step by step. Tom Wujec loves asking people and teams to draw how they make toast, because the process reveals unexpected truths about how we can solve our biggest, most complicated problems at work. Watch »
What do you do with an outdated encyclopedia in the information age? With X-Acto knives and an eye for a good remix, artist Brian Dettmer makes beautiful, unexpected sculptures that breathe new life into old books. Watch »

February 7, 2015

Clinton Robinson comments on

Tom Wujec: Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast

I really appreciated the presentation of data regarding each process and how many drawings each took. It highlighted for me the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

We all are seeking to be more collaborative and innovative but your last point really drove something home for me. Sometimes we create a solution looking for a problem when we should be doing just the opposite. We should be all standing on a “burning platform” to emphasize the critical nature of our work. This is maybe not the process to use when seeking random opportunity?”