We seem to be living in an age of gurus. They’re all over the place, building large followings in domains like politics, self-improvement, spirituality, religion, activism, philosophy and even (occasionally) science. Gurus may not be more numerous now than in the past, but they seem to now more easily garner audiences of hundreds of thousands due to the fracturing of media, social media and YouTube.
If you pay attention to how harmful gurus behave, you’ll start to notice patterns that come u...
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influence
Are you a “credentialist” or “non-credentialist”?
Are you a "credentialist" or "non-credentialist"? Here's a test I designed so that you can find out.
After noticing a number of times that people's feelings about formal credentials can differ dramatically and that this seems to impact their views on certain important topics, I've been working on defining a "credentialist" trait (or attitude).
In a nutshell, the non-credentialist/credentialist spectrum, as I'm defining it, captures how important a person thinks formal credentials are, as ...
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Do We Know Why We Act?
Looking back on our decisions, we generally feel as though we can explain them. Why did we hire that candidate instead of this one? Because he was clearly more qualified for the job. Why did we go on a date with that person and not the other one? Because he or she seemed nicer. Why did we sentence that criminal to a harsher sentence than this other one? Because she committed a more damaging crime. If we are making our decisions for rational, well thought out reasons, we should be able to explain...
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