![[Everyday] Psychophilosophy](https://everydaypsychophilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cropped-10-21-16-unsquished-everydaypsychophilosophy-header.png)
When We Got It Wrong
Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes. — Jawaharlal Nehru For the last week and a half, I have been at summer camp for social psychologists. No, that isn’t a made-up thing. And yes, I am an adult. (Well, kind of.) From 9:00am – 5:00pm every day, I have been taking classes with two of the foremost professors on psychological interventions: programs that implement social psychology to improve the world...
Save the Internet!
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. — Bill Gates By the end of 1969, four computers worldwide made up the Internet. By the mid-1980s, this “networking system” had expanded to dozens of universities as it let scholars easily search and collaborate on research all across the country. In 1992, the first web browser (i.e., Netscape) was developed, allowing people everywhere to access this...
Who Helps Whom?
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know. — W.H. Auden In the 5th grade, a nameless young girl saved my life. Well, she saved me $0.75, which is kind of like saving one’s life at that age. At a garage sale, I found a basketball signed by Damon Stoudamire, one of my favorite players at the time. And for this signed ball, the adult was only charging $0.75… Say...
The Sunk Cost Fallacy
To terminate a project in which $1.1 billion has been invested represents an unconscionable mishandling of taxpayers’ dollars. – Senator Jeremiah Denton, 1981 (in response to critics who showed that the total cost of this Waterway Project would be more money than it could ever make) I’m going to describe an experience that my psychophilosophy powers tells me you’ve had: Not long ago, you went out to eat and ordered a meal...
The Invisible Influence of Cell Phones
Cell phones are so convenient that they’re inconvenient. — Haruki Murakami If you were being mugged and had to give up either your wallet or your cell phone, which would you choose? In formulating your own answer, you probably tried to determine which of those two items was more replaceable (or rather, why the mugger was only asking for one of them…). For many people, their phone has become more indispensable than the...