21: Professor Barry Schwartz: Psychology & Decision Making in a Complex World

Barry Schwartz is a professor of Psychology, serving as visiting professor at the University of Berkeley, in California. His numerous TED talks have been viewed and listened to more than 20 million times. They include: “Paradox of Choice”, “Loss of Wisdom”, “Practical Knowledge”, and why the way we think about “Work is Broken”. He has also written several popular books, where The Paradox of Choice is the best-known one.

In our discussion with Barry, we go over things such as:

• When too much choice is a bad thing
• In which areas do people prefer more choice
• How Barry does his research (and the process behind his books and TED talks)
• What he did before he find his own niche as a scientist and intellectual, and how long time it took him to do this…

• Why we can’t always trust what people say
• Why Barry thinks social media should be controlled
• His greatest concerns for the 21st Century (and reasons for optimism)
• And, finally, why he thinks soft skills and positive values will become more important as computers become better and displace many existing jobs

Some thinkers mentioned our discussion include:

Cass Sunstein & Richard Thaler, Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, Milton Friedman, Isaiah Berlin, Jeffrey Pfeiffer…

Also listen to:

Episode 4: “Are You a Maximizer or Satisficer?” as it ties into our conversation with Barry. (The idea comes from the Paradox of Choice.)

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