Mindless

By Adam Gopnik – It turns out that it’s very rare for any mental activity to be situated tidily in one network of neurons, much less one bit of the brain.

When you think you’ve located a function in one part of the brain, you will soon find that it has skipped town, like a bail jumper. And all of the neuro-skeptics argue for the plasticity of our neural networks.

We learn and shape our neurology as much as we inherit it. Our selves shape our brains at least as much as our brains our selves. more> http://tinyurl.com/mwfxlt3

Neuromarketing — You’re Doing It Wrong

By Douglas van Praet – By better understanding the real motives of our decisions we can facilitate a non-zero sum exchange, creating both powerful brands and satisfied customers.

As neuroscientist Read Montague explains, “Evolution has essentially bootstrapped our penchant for intellectual concepts to the same reward circuits that govern our animal appetites.

“The guy who’s on hunger strike for some political cause is still relying on his midbrain dopamine neurons, just like a monkey getting a sweet treat.” more> http://tinyurl.com/p59ffky

Take Away Harvard’s Nonprofit Status

By Annie Lowrey – There’s an old line about how the United States government is an insurance conglomerate protected by an army.

Harvard is a real-estate and hedge-fund concern that happens to have a college attached.

From a purely utilitarian perspective, there are causes that need that $350 million more. Groups like GiveWell are devoted to figuring out where a dollar does the most good. It recommends initiatives like deworming in very low-income countries.

Harvard, at the same time, is spending a billion dollars upgrading its coeds’ convenient, riverfront housing. If it wanted to maximize its $32 billion worth of utility, it could, say, admit more students, especially poor ones, reduce its focus on property development, and double down on its focus on research, which currently makes up $800 million of its $4.2 billion in annual operating expenses. more> http://tinyurl.com/lr6ldlt

How We Think

BOOK REVIEW

How We Think, Author: John Dewey.

By Maria Popova – What separates thinking, a basic human faculty we take for granted, from thinking well?

What it takes to train ourselves into mastering the art of thinking, and how we can channel our natural curiosity in a productive way when confronted with an overflow of information.

A subject urgently relevant today, in our age of snap judgments and instant opinions. more> http://tinyurl.com/knfc3fz

Don’t Be Rude, You Loser

By Noah Smith – In other words, civility gives an unfair advantage to bad arguments. Being polite to someone can easily be mistaken for taking their idea seriously — and many ideas simply don’t deserve to be taken seriously.

But there’s an important question that I think Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig fails to consider:

What if your own viewpoint is wrong? more> http://tinyurl.com/kzvs6ul