Happy Saturday! Here is your weekly dose of the world of Miles, learning, techno-optimism, business thoughts, and ways to be a better human.
How Minds Change. We’ve covered Street Epistemology before so I’m excited to see it in the new book How Minds Change. While we learned a lot from the rationalist enlightenment approach to argumentation, many today despair that discourse has moved “post truth”. Is there a new level of groupthink or inability to communicate about disagreements? More people doubt the truth-finding abilities of Milton’s “marketplace of ideas”. If rationalist approaches are not the whole answer, how do people change their minds? If you share these questions, then definitely read the book. Two other things of note:
People often change their beliefs after leaving a group committed to those ideas. You might guess that you stop believing then leave the group.
Street Epistemology, Smart Politics, Deep Canvassing and Motivational interviewing are facets of the same underlying theory. (BTW, are these techniques tilted towards one part of the political spectrum?)
Your Parent Why. Last week we covered the two contrasting parenting models, carpenter vs. gardener. That is more about style or approach. But why be a parent? I’m curious about your personal motivation or other common ones you hear. (Perhaps someone wants to write a sequel to How to Live called the Goal of Parenting?)
Your happiness
Fostering or hoping for happiness for your child
Helping your child feel fulfilled
Ensure your child becomes independent
Building a strong relationship with your child
Creating contributing members of society
Investing in a personal old-age safety net
Create a legacy or dynasty
Forward Party. Did you hear that the Forward Party merged with two other political parties creating one of the best financed third parties in the US? They have a national kick off in Houston today. Learn more from my interview with Andrew Yang, the Forward Party founder. People are correct in pointing out that our winner-take-all voting system favors a two party dynamic. Three things I would note:
Part of the platform is to change the voting system so we have a more competitive political landscape. This is the part of the platform that excites me the most.
There have been take overs or replacements of the major two political parties a few times in US history. (Does anyone have the exact count of how many time?)
Also, Forward does not ask you to leave your current party to join.
Until next week,
Miles
P.S. Jeff Zhou, the founder / CEO of Fig Tech, was on our podcast Startups for Good. Fig was the first fintech to be a certified B corp and a CDFI and has served 400,000+ customers.