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In philosophy and logic there is something know as the liar's paradox. Consider the following statement: "This statement is false." If "This statement is false" is true, then it is false, which in turn would mean that it is actually true, but this would mean it is false … and so on ad infinitum. If…

 “The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.” The above quote is from G.K. Chesterton, a British author and thinker, about whom I know very little. In my never-ending quest to unlearn, however, I keep stumbling upon his writings. After reading the following story, I am now even more determined to…

Fellow blogger and change agent, Seth Godin, has an excellent post today entitled "When data and decisions collide." In it, he recounts numerous examples of people ignoring data because it doesn't line up with their "hunches" — or what people think they know but "just ain't so." Godin is pessimistic about the time it will take most…

Read the following sentence: A woman without her man is nothing. My guess is that if you're a woman it pissed you off because you read it in the following way: "A woman, without her man, is nothing". If, however, you made just a small change in punctuation it could be read this way: "A…

Earlier today I came across a tweet from a person (@riverblindmusic) in New Zealand who said that my post the other day (To Unlearn Learn to Disenthrall) was keeping him (or her) awake as he wrote a new song based on the word. At the time, I thought it was just a cool example of…

I understand the appeal of saying something is either black or white (and thus denying all the various shades of grey in between). Numerous debates occur everyday. For example, some people argue that  homosexuality is genetic in nature. Others claim it is a nurtured condition. In spite of the efforts of supporters on both sides of the…

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." A good friend of mine, knowing…

Take a look at the picture to the right. Do you see the green and the blue spirals? Amazingly, they are both the same color. (For a detailed explanation read this  article in Discover Magazine.) This optical illusion, which shows how our mind uses neighboring colors to make inferences about other colors, is a wonderful…

Gregory Rodriguez recently had an excellent article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "The danger of not knowing how to inquire." In many ways, it is a positive review Andrea Batista Schlesinger's new book, "The Death of Why?" but, more broadly, the article questions American's penchant for action. In part, this penchant for action is…