Unlearning 101

Unlearning 2 gd 2 b tru?

Is it possible that all of your kid's texting can actually be good for her? According to this new study the answer is yes. If you don't believe me, I'll just CUL8R.

Are We Unlearning Wisdom? Yes, and We Need to Stop!

Are we unlearning wisdom? The fine folks at TED have done it again by offering an insightful 20-minute presentation by Barry Schwartz. Near the end of his talk, Schwart discusses why society might also want to unlearn some things about the use of incentives -- such as why they don't always work the way Economics 101 tells us they should.

Unlearning Economics

"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish." -- Friedrich von Hayek

Unlearning Focus Groups ... and the Notion that the Consumer is King

I recently came this quote from a company called Launchforce.com. It has a great deal of merit. I, too, have often felt that people don't have any clue what they want -- or know what they would really value -- until they actually see and begin using a new product.

 

Unlearning Anti-Social Behavior

Perhaps past behavior isn't the best indicator of future behavior: Anti-social behavior leads to depression.

Unlearning Climate Change?

George Will has a thoughtful opinion piece in today's paper on climate change. From an unlearning perspective, I especially like this quote from Montaigne:

"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we know we least."

Unlearning Chemo

Here's novel idea. Rather than treating diseases, health care professionals should treat patients. Thanks to advances in nanotechnology this might soon be possible.

It is a fact that different drugs work differently on different people. New imaging probes now portend the day when doctors will be able to predict the effectiveness of a particular drug -- before it is prescribed!

In other words, instead of giving the same chemo drug to every breast cancer patient, we will soon be able prescribe the drug which works for a specific individual.

Unlearning Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide, commonly known as CO2, is the devil molecule of our time. What would happen, however, if we could convert this greenhouse gas into a renewable energy as this article suggests?At a minimum, it would require a great many people to rethink their views on the "sustainability" of fossil fuels and they may have to engage in some unlearning.

Unlearning the Guitar

Who says a musical instrument can't have interchangeable parts. Meet the chameleon guitar. If the technology takes off, it may require musicians to unlearn some behaviors which they have spent their entire careers learning.

Unlearning Numbers

According to this informative study if you want to better understand the relative risks and benefits of various actions, it might behoove you to reframe issues using different numbers (e.g. use 100 cents versus $1). The two are same (100 cents = $1) but, surprisingly, people react differently to the two numbers.