Cultural Psychology | Insight Junkie

If you had a lab or a scientific vision that was TOO well organised, would it reduce your chances of making serendipitous discoveries? If you had society what was TOO well organised would it reduce your chances of making serendipitous friendships and acquaintances? (e.g. Imagine a society in which procedures are so well worked out and explicit that you don’t even need to ask people questions about how and what to do?)

Is there an argument to be made that for the purposes of scientific discovery and promoting human connection, that there should be a certain element of disorder/chaos in labs, institutions and societies?

Serendipity

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Posted by Insight Junkie on March 5, 2012 in Cultural Psychology, Hypothesis, Observation, Social connection, Thought experiment

Tags: Getting worse to get better, Productivity, Work

06 Jun

Three ways we attempt to deal with objects of desire/addiction (two more traditional, one more modern):

1) Banish or ‘cover up’ the object of desire e.g. ban alcohol, force woman (and men) to hide most of their bodies from public view,

2) Remove or distance oneself from the object e.g. become a monk in a monastery, keep no alcohol or junk food in the house,

3) Permit oneself to be in the presence of the object of desire, and rely on self-discipline or mindfulness to engage with this object in a ‘responsible’ healthy way.

This last way seems to involve the most ‘freedom’ and yet so many of us are hooked on at least *something* e.g. overeating, smoking, alcohol or other drugs …