barry schwartz

live...
thank you @stevehargadon and future of ed

Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College.  He has been there since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.  He has written 11 books and more than 100 articles for professional journals. He is a fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less was named one of the top business books of the year by both Business Week and Forbes Magazine. The book explores how too many choices can paralyse people into inaction and cause them to be dissatisfied with even good decisions.  The themes of his newest book, Practical Wisdom:  The Right Way to Do the Right Thing, with co-author Kenneth Sharpe, are outlined in the following TED talk video.

freedom is the highest good, the way to freedom is choice, so more choice,
book - is evidence that this is false
if people have too much choice instead of being liberated they are paralized
when everything is possible people don't know how to make decisions,

see earlier post on you blog on Barry's TED


30 yrs of research - in general - people make sub-optimal decisions
when you add options you do make things worse off - because people start thinking.. maybe i want that..
[but what if k-8 is helping and even 9-12 is helping kids to narrow down and make those choices.]

cell phone choices have reached our cognitive limit

ed is going to reward the autodidact

[why can't that be the role of the school, helping choose schools for kids]

book written for individual choices..
message to institutions - people need constraints, what makes people free is choice within limits, not unlimited choice
[can't 1-1 mentors help filter open choice for k-12]

thing about religions is they have a moral dimension... how to live
we've left that to individual choice..
people need moral anchors and moral guideposts


practical wisdom - incentives
aristotle into the 21st cent, only way to have people doing good things is to have good people
cant said it was to have good rules
aristotle's key virtue - practical wisdom - when to be hones when to be kind, when to persevere, when to abandon, wisdom tells you how to balance

public ed:

either give people scripts to follow to do the right thing, or give them good reason to do the right thing???

don't trust teachers - to do right thing - so hand them scripts, then you incentivize them to do the right thing.
rules/incentives won't get us there..
less wise drs lawyers etc will be, because they aren't having time to practice good judgment


bad assumption - that no one wanted to work... and so they had to be paid off well
make work maximally efficient - no matter if value is there.



[kelly - offer everything, help filter to small amt]


a wise person is made not born

[peter - have to make yourself - kids see the expected]


he's impressed with kipp schools

[what if we focus on 1-1 mentors.. and the entire city becomes a space for the multiple choices to be offered]