social – Page 10 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

Impotent Project Partners

2020-03-22

Probably a worst case scenario: You have a project partner who is impotent. Not regarding sex, but when it comes to his/her own organization. Even worse, that person is an eunuch — no amount of knowledge will help that person.

Image: Lord Varys from "Game of Thrones"
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Science and “The Good Cause”

2020-02-19

Science should follow good journalism: Don't become part of a cause, not even a good one.

Image: Spiegel (1995)
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Consensus in Science

2019-12-03

A great one-page editorial about the issue of consensus in science.
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The Problem with Functional Fixedness in Creativity

2019-10-21

Lots of creative problems can be solved when we see what is really there, instead of seeing what we see.
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Recommendation: The Art of Manliness Podcast

2019-10-19

An (so far) interesting podcast addressing a lot of different topics.
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Recommendation: Steven Pinker: “An Unnecessary Defense of Reason and a Necessary Defense of the University’s Role in Advancing It”

2019-10-16

Steven Pinker's Keynote talk at the 2nd Heterodox Academy Annual Conference in June 2019 is well worth listening to.

Image: Half Hour of Heterodoxy Logo
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Climate Change Activism

2019-10-15

Some thoughts on Fridays4Future, Students4Future, and Scientist4Future -- and strikes at schools and universities.

Image: Pale Blue Dot.
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False Dichotomies (Presentation Slides, German)

2019-10-04

Slides (in German) about false dichotomies (a rhetorical fallacy), expanded to cover false moral dichotomies (going back to Haidt and referring Boghossian's and Lindsay's book «How to have impossible conversations»).
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Looking at a Shadowrun Future — By political parties delegating censorship powers to corporations

2019-09-17

We are weary of censorship by the state. But unfortunately, censorship got delegated to private companies. Unfortunately for us ... and the state.

Image: Shadowrun Rulebook Cover Image.
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Idealistic Youth and (Social) Power

2019-08-10

A short passage from a graphic novel struck a chord — there is a danger when idealistic youth get power beyond their years.
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This is a private blog showing my opinions. If you have an issue with what I write here, either don’t read it or talk to me directly. Don’t waste your time — or mine — dragging my employer into matters where they hold no authority.

The institution I work for, or rather the people officially representing it, have already distanced themselves from this blog. I find this unnecessary, as I’ve clearly stated in the «About this Blog» section that this is a personal blog.

Frankly, I have nothing but contempt for those who lack the backbone to address their concerns directly and instead resort to passive-aggressive tattling to others. Such behavior strikes me as not only cowardly, but also spineless, gutless, and wholly unprincipled. Moreover, these efforts are as pathetic as they are futile.

That said, I might listen if you present compelling arguments and evidence, as constructive feedback is always welcome. Who knows? We might even both gain something valuable from the interaction.

A comment for those seeking to use this site for personal gain: Given the increase in requests, let me be clear. I write on this blog because I want to. It’s my hobby, my playground. Sometimes people point me to interesting products/services and I write about them. But any request regarding ads or sponsored placements ends up the trash without a reply. And if you think something would be of interest, differentiate yourself from the spammers by referring to a posting — in an intelligent way. (I get enough auto-generated mails to identify them immediately.)

BTW, posts can get updated after I published them if I spot spelling errors (not a native speaker) or think a different wording might improve precision and clarity.

This blog is not focused on a single topic, or method. As long as it is relevant to improving creativity (or allowing it in the first place), it's fair game.
Some postings on this blog deal with freedom, as I think that we need freedom of thought, of speech, of association, etc. pp. to solve mankind's problems. Thus, some postings may seem a bit remote when it comes to organizing creativity. Freedom is, however, the bedrock of creativity.
The heterogeneity of the postings can make reading this blog a bit cumbersome, at least if you are only interested in one topic. You can either use the search function (above), or use the categories or the tags to narrow down the postings you see.