Tag Archives: psychology

Watch Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice” talk at TED

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied [...]
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Watch Tim Brown’s “Innovation Through Design Thinking” talk at MIT Sloan School of Management

Not so long ago, Tim Brown recounts, designers belonged to a “priesthood.” Given an assignment, a designer would disappear into a back room, “bring the result out under a black sheet and present it to the client.” Brown and his colleagues at IDEO, the company that brought us the first Apple Macintosh mouse, couldn’t have traveled farther from this notion [...]
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Watch Steven Pinker’s “Language and Thought” talk at TED

In an exclusive preview of his book The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker looks at language and how it expresses what goes on in our minds -- and how the words we choose communicate much more than we realize [...]
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Design in China: differences between Western and Chinese Consumers

Tom Doctoroff, North Asia Director of JWT Advertising, shares some interesting angles on Chinese consuming patterns: The Chinese consumer is becoming increasingly modern and internationalized. However, while "egos" and ambitions are huge, the "new generation" is not becoming "individualistic" in the Western sense -- i.e., the peoples never define themselves independent of society. The middle class, those who can afford non-essential items, is torn between two impulses. The first is projection of status which leads to a desire to be noticed (in public contexts), aggressive self-expression and experimentation with new modes of style and design. The second, in vivid contrast to the projection, is protection, a fear of sticking out too obviously or challenging existing hierarchies and social restrictions. The Chinese saying -- "the leading goose gets shot down" -- is as true today as it was yesterday [...]
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Watch Susan Blackmore’s “Memes and temes” talk at TED

Susan Blackmore studies memes: ideas that replicate themselves from brain to brain like a virus. She makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new kind of meme, the teme, which spreads itself via technology -- and invents ways to keep itself alive [...]
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Living in China: Young need psychological help

Shanghai schools should monitor their students' psychological health and educate them about psychological problems to prevent them from falling into depression because of the economic crisis [...]
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “Creativity, fulfillment and flow” talk at TED

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, “What makes a life worth living?” Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of flow.
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Don Norman’s “The three ways that good design makes you happy” talk at TED

In this talk from 2003, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed [...]
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