This Will Make You Smarter

but now we tend to think more in terms of fertile circumstances, wherein uncountable numbers of minds contribute to a river of innovation.

When we cling rigidly to our constructs, as McClintock’s peers did, we can be blinded to what’s right in front of us.

Most scientific disciplines have long timelines of data, but many ecological disciplines don’t. We are forced to rely on secondhand and anecdotal

reactive use of intelligence narrows our vision. In contrast, projective thinking is expansive, “open-ended,” and speculative, requiring the thinker to create the context, concepts, and the objectives.

For that, we must look for and invest in quantum jumps in technology with low probability of success; we must create black-swan technologies. We must enable the multiplication of resources

In our post-privacy world of pervasive social-media sharing, GPS tracking, cellphone-tower triangulation, wireless sensor monitoring, browser-cookie targeting, face-recognition detecting, consumer-intention profiling, and endless other means by which our

Kakonomics is the strange yet widespread preference for mediocre exchanges insofar as nobody complains about them.

Risk literacy is the ability to deal with uncertainties in an informed way.

They know there’s no right place to start, so they simply start somewhere and see what happens.