Leading Edge Articles

Showing 41 to 45 of 54 results

Devil's Advocate

Andrew Badham - 2018-04-17 13:55:09

There’s a game I like to play with my classes. It’s based on the concept of playing Devil’s Advocate. Simply put, it’s all about taking the opposing view of an argument even if you don’t really agree with it. First off, we try to find a couple of controversial topics, ones that really split the room, but hopefully, don’t elicit too much of an emotional response. A little bit of controversy ups the engagement level, but too much spirals the class into emotio... Read more

Ideological Inoculation

Andrew Badham - 2018-04-17 12:02:40

When I was still in school, I remember being taken on a field trip to the Cradle of Humankind, to Maropeng. We were taken through the Sterkfontein caves to see the dig sites where archaeological treasures such as Mrs Ples were found, and then through the educational centre not far from that. In the educational centre, we were treated to the sight of the fossil remains of long extinct rodents, sabre-toothed cats, and of course, early hominids. It is impossible to discuss hominids witho... Read more

Logical Fallacies - A short List

Andrew Badham - 2018-04-17 11:40:27

Logical fallacies are mistakes in the way that we or other people construct their arguments. If you familiarise yourself with these, you will be better able to see when you or someone else is making sense. False CauseBasically, the reason something is happening is not necessarily what it appears to be. We presume that a relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other. One subset of this fallacy is the assumption that correlation proves causation. e.g. You come down with... Read more

Cognitive Biases - A Small List

Andrew Badham - 2018-04-17 09:07:55

Cognitive biases are shortcuts in our thinking which often get in the way of us understanding the world around us. Here is a list of some of the more common ones, so you can make yourself aware of your own biases Confirmation and Belief BiasWhen we already believe something to be true, we will both unconsciously look for evidence that supports that belief, and we will tend to place a higher weighting on that evidence. If evidence contradicts what we already believe, we will ignore it or simpl... Read more

Just enough self-doubt

Andrew Badham - 2018-03-19 15:37:39

So much is said for the power of confidence. Whether it’s in self-help columns or thought leadership articles, confidence is represented as this miracle drug, a social panacea, and in so many ways, it is. Confident people seem more capable, more attractive, perhaps even more trustworthy. So, taking someone who doesn’t display a lot of confidence and getting them to finally show some will make a huge difference to them. It’s more than just perception too; in some cases, confid... Read more