This week: why caring is bad for thinking, why Twitter can't grow, and why writers write. I CARE THEREFORE I'M RIGHT Study: the more we care about something, the more likely we are to present bad arguments for it, without realising they are bad. We confuse our passion for an issue with our ability to reason about it. This connects to something I often return to: the fundamental tension, in politics, between experts and actors. People who grasp the details of policy and some experience of it tend to be less 'passionate' and less partisan. Most people who have spent time in government will tell you that 80% of the problems are the same no matter who is in power. If you know much less about governing and policy, it's much easier to feel certainty about the right solutions. So you're more likely to get passionate, outraged - and to act, to campaign, to speak out. The thing is, you need both - too many experts and you end up with an inhuman technocracy resistant to change (see the Home Office - an
Here come old flat top
Here come old flat top
Here come old flat top
This week: why caring is bad for thinking, why Twitter can't grow, and why writers write. I CARE THEREFORE I'M RIGHT Study: the more we care about something, the more likely we are to present bad arguments for it, without realising they are bad. We confuse our passion for an issue with our ability to reason about it. This connects to something I often return to: the fundamental tension, in politics, between experts and actors. People who grasp the details of policy and some experience of it tend to be less 'passionate' and less partisan. Most people who have spent time in government will tell you that 80% of the problems are the same no matter who is in power. If you know much less about governing and policy, it's much easier to feel certainty about the right solutions. So you're more likely to get passionate, outraged - and to act, to campaign, to speak out. The thing is, you need both - too many experts and you end up with an inhuman technocracy resistant to change (see the Home Office - an