Wonderful piece, sound wisdom, let’s make it a movement. We are modeling next week as it complements our efforts to “Finish Well Beyond 50”. Thanks for all you do. Listened to the bite last week and have book in hand.
Hi Rufus- I 100% agree with your response to Liz. I spent my entire career in the teaching profession. One of the questions that frequently surfaced was: is effective teaching a science or an art? The consensus often reached is that it is a combination of the two. Similarly, if we apply one of Dan's concepts, effective teaching requires both controlling attention and connective attention.
Hi, agree with you and Dan that in principle, flourishing should be a group activity. In practice, it can be challenging especially when individuals have different opinions about facts, including scientific facts. As an example, I now live in the Deep South (South Carolina) where a rule of thumb is that if it's a debate between God and science, God always wins. As someone who prefers science, that's hard for me. I try to be open-minded, but as someone who was permanently scarred as a child when I had the measles and chicken pox at the same time -- before the vaccine was easily available -- I'm a big supporter of science (and vaccines) and am horrified by the measles outbreak SC is now experiencing.
And as Dan knows, I even had a hard time with his book as the individual he interviewed about attention is not relying the most up-to-date neuroscience regarding brain networks. So Dan and I have agreed to disagree, which doesn't help with flourishing.
And while your dinner party sounded like a lot of fun, one of your guests writes very loosely about science and after reading one of her books, I vowed never again to read another. And before I joined the Next Big Idea Club as a charter member, I checked in with Adam Grant to make sure the non-fiction books NBIC selected would not be featuring her and instead would select books that were rigorously based in fact, including science.
Luckily for me, I've found groups of people who do honor science, including a global association of neuroplasticians at the npn.Hub. We all flourish together!
Thanks for your share, Liz, and thank you for bringing a little frisson to NBIC.
Here's my view — we all learn in multiple ways. We learn from the rigorous two-steps-forward-one-step-back march of science, and we learn from personal experience and those of friends and acquaintances. It's appropriate to expect scientists and policymakers to adhere rigorously to the scientific method, and flag when they do not (particularly with the recent backsliding on public policy around vaccines!)
As I like to say, if a consortium of science deniers builds an airplane, don't get in it! Even science skeptics express their faith in science (perhaps unwittingly) when they get in airplanes and go to hospitals. Science works ... though it's a long, plodding, imperfect journey.
Having said that, we DO learn from our own experiences, even though from a scientific perspective N-of-1 trials have very little value. And we like to compare notes with friends about their experiences even though such exchanges are not scientifically acceptable RCT studies.
I believe there is a place for books in which people share their own experiences and powerful, inspiring stories. I would go so far as to make the case that the whole self help genre is a deeply American phenomenon, arguably started by Benjamin Franklin, which has done a lot of good. Franklin was an early American scientist, but he was very happy to share personal findings, and exchange anecdotes in pursuit of progress.
Most non-fiction books written by non-PhDs blend scientific reporting with personal anecdote and storytelling. I have learned a lot from such books and think they have an important place in the conversation. There are huge volumes of rigorously scientific exposition published in journals and books every year, thank goodness, but most of them are hard to read. Story and anecdote are for me like candied pecans in a salad (I happen to be eating one right now) — sugary, but a great compliment to a nutritious meal. For me as a reader, Dan nailed the recipe.
Wonderful piece, sound wisdom, let’s make it a movement. We are modeling next week as it complements our efforts to “Finish Well Beyond 50”. Thanks for all you do. Listened to the bite last week and have book in hand.
Hi Rufus- I 100% agree with your response to Liz. I spent my entire career in the teaching profession. One of the questions that frequently surfaced was: is effective teaching a science or an art? The consensus often reached is that it is a combination of the two. Similarly, if we apply one of Dan's concepts, effective teaching requires both controlling attention and connective attention.
Hi, agree with you and Dan that in principle, flourishing should be a group activity. In practice, it can be challenging especially when individuals have different opinions about facts, including scientific facts. As an example, I now live in the Deep South (South Carolina) where a rule of thumb is that if it's a debate between God and science, God always wins. As someone who prefers science, that's hard for me. I try to be open-minded, but as someone who was permanently scarred as a child when I had the measles and chicken pox at the same time -- before the vaccine was easily available -- I'm a big supporter of science (and vaccines) and am horrified by the measles outbreak SC is now experiencing.
And as Dan knows, I even had a hard time with his book as the individual he interviewed about attention is not relying the most up-to-date neuroscience regarding brain networks. So Dan and I have agreed to disagree, which doesn't help with flourishing.
And while your dinner party sounded like a lot of fun, one of your guests writes very loosely about science and after reading one of her books, I vowed never again to read another. And before I joined the Next Big Idea Club as a charter member, I checked in with Adam Grant to make sure the non-fiction books NBIC selected would not be featuring her and instead would select books that were rigorously based in fact, including science.
Luckily for me, I've found groups of people who do honor science, including a global association of neuroplasticians at the npn.Hub. We all flourish together!
Thanks for your share, Liz, and thank you for bringing a little frisson to NBIC.
Here's my view — we all learn in multiple ways. We learn from the rigorous two-steps-forward-one-step-back march of science, and we learn from personal experience and those of friends and acquaintances. It's appropriate to expect scientists and policymakers to adhere rigorously to the scientific method, and flag when they do not (particularly with the recent backsliding on public policy around vaccines!)
As I like to say, if a consortium of science deniers builds an airplane, don't get in it! Even science skeptics express their faith in science (perhaps unwittingly) when they get in airplanes and go to hospitals. Science works ... though it's a long, plodding, imperfect journey.
Having said that, we DO learn from our own experiences, even though from a scientific perspective N-of-1 trials have very little value. And we like to compare notes with friends about their experiences even though such exchanges are not scientifically acceptable RCT studies.
I believe there is a place for books in which people share their own experiences and powerful, inspiring stories. I would go so far as to make the case that the whole self help genre is a deeply American phenomenon, arguably started by Benjamin Franklin, which has done a lot of good. Franklin was an early American scientist, but he was very happy to share personal findings, and exchange anecdotes in pursuit of progress.
Most non-fiction books written by non-PhDs blend scientific reporting with personal anecdote and storytelling. I have learned a lot from such books and think they have an important place in the conversation. There are huge volumes of rigorously scientific exposition published in journals and books every year, thank goodness, but most of them are hard to read. Story and anecdote are for me like candied pecans in a salad (I happen to be eating one right now) — sugary, but a great compliment to a nutritious meal. For me as a reader, Dan nailed the recipe.