Amanda Penn, Author at Shortform Books

Narrative Fallacy: When Storytelling Is Dangerous

What is the narrative fallacy? How does our natural tendency to tell stories get in our way? The narrative fallacy is the cognitive bias that puts us in danger of ascribing meaning or cause to random events. Humans are evolutionarily conditioned—by the development of the left hemisphere of our brains—to reduce the complexity of the world’s information; and the most efficient way of simplifying that complexity is through storytelling. We’ll cover the narrative fallacy, look at narrative fallacy examples, and suggest two ways to counter it.

What Is Scalability? (And Why Should You Care?)

What is scalability? How does scalability affect our lives? When is scalability a good thing? When is it a negative thing? Scalability is the characteristic or ability of a company or process to grow and adapt to changing demands. In the scalable parts of our lives, physical limits don’t apply and effects tend toward incredible extremes. We’ll further explore the scalability definition above, cover how scalability affects our lives, and cover which areas of our lives are most impacted by scalability.

Malcolm Gladwell’s Maven: Why You Need One on Your Team

Who is Malcolm Gladwell’s “maven”? How are mavens crucial to the spread of ideas and important for business? Mavens are information specialists. They are the kinds of people who are endlessly curious and adept at gathering and retaining information on a wide variety of (sometimes obscure) topics. The term comes from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. We’ll cover the role of Malcolm Gladwell’s mavens in business and why they’re crucial to the spread of ideas, services, and products.

Superstar Effect: Why Winner Takes All (Even If It’s Unfair)

What is the superstar effect? How does it work? Who does it benefit? How does it contribute to inequality? The superstar effect is the tendency of the most talented people to benefit disproportionately from their talent. It was coined by economist Sherwin Rosen to describe the unequal distributions of income and prestige in Extremistan sectors like stand-up comedy, classical music, and research scholarship. We’ll cover how the superstar effect works, where it accurately describes the world, and how it fails to take luck into account.

Broken Window Theory (Criminology): Disrepair Leads to Crime

What is the Broken Window Theory in criminology? How has Wilson and Kelling’s broken windows theory been used to reduce crime in places like New York City? The Broken Window Theory is a sociological theory that says that smaller signs of disorder — like broken windows left in disrepair on a building — send the message that anything goes. This subtle message leads to greater crime and public disorder. It was developed by James Wilson and George Kelling. We’ll look at how the broken window theory in sociology has been used to reduce crime.

Cosmological Argument: How It Distorts the Evidence

What is the cosmological argument? Is it sound? What are the arguments against the cosmological argument? The anthropic cosmological argument is the statement that human existence cannot be a random occurrence because of the specificity and number of factors that provide for that existence. This argument is touted by not only religious scholars but also physicists and philosophers. We’ll cover the basics of the cosmological argument and explore the concept of “silent evidence,” the broader term for the lack of evidence in an argument.

Hayek’s Economic Theory: The Problem Is with “Experts”

What was Friedrich Hayek’s economic theory? Why did he spend so much of his career railing against socialism? Economist Friedrich Hayek argued that a dynamical system like the economy was simply too complex for a single entity to master. This was in contrast to the prevailing rational choice theory. We’ll cover the basic elements of Hayek’s libertarian economic theory and explore why uncertainty makes prediction impossible.

Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen: Key Players in Marketing

Who are connectors, mavens, and salesmen? Where do these distinctions come from, and how are these three types of people crucial to the spread of ideas and important for business? Connectors are sociable, gregarious, and naturally skilled at making friends and acquaintances. Mavens are endlessly curious and adept at gathering and retaining information on a wide variety of topics. Salesmen are the people who pitch the idea or message behind an epidemic and persuade people to jump on board. The terms comes from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. We’ll cover the role of connectors, mavens, and salesmen in business and

Illusion of Understanding: You’re Not as Smart as You Think

What is the illusion of understanding? Why do we fall for it, and what can we do about it? The illusion of understanding is the cognitive bias of thinking we have a grasp of what’s going on in the world when, in fact, the world is far more complex than we know. The idea of the illusion of understanding was popularized by Daniel Kahneman and Nassim Nicholas Taleb. We’ll cover examples of the illusion of understanding and how it impacts our lives and how we make predictions.

Power-Law Distribution: How It Better Models the World

What is a power-law distribution? How is it useful in describing and predicting events in the real world, which is full of uncertainty? Power-law distribution is a functional relationship between two quantities in which the relationship remains constant no matter the initial size of the quantities. This relationship is useful in describing events and phenomena that can’t be graphed on a bell curve. We’ll cover the basics of power-law distribution and look at how it works to accurately describe the world and account for otherwise unpredictable events.