The Art of Changing Minds

On this episode of The Knowledge Project, I talk rationality, changing minds (our own and others), filtering information, the role of intuition, and a lot more with Julia Galef.
Galef is the President and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality, a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, California, devoted to developing, testing and training people in strategies for reasoning and decision making.
She also hosts the Rationally Speaking podcast, a biweekly show featuring conversations about science and philosophy.
This is a topic I could talk about for hours, so we wasted no time at all. In this discussion, we cover a lot of ground, including:
What happened when Julia was 7 years old that first sparked a lifelong interest in good argument The one thing her parents did that helps her keep an open mind to new evidence even when she might be wrong The two types of rationality and how they both affect the way we view reality and the world we live in Why she co-founded the Center for Applied Rationality and how they are changing the way people think about problems and make decisions The role intuition plays in our decision-making process, (and when we can trust it to take over) What the strengths and weaknesses of the 2 systems of our brain are and how they interact to help us function The two-step process to changing minds (both your own and others’) Julia’s tips on how to process the daily deluge of available information with a more rational mind And a lot more ...