Do you consider yourself to be an expert on any given topic? If you’ve ever spoken with authority about it, you may have assumed one of these flawed postures. (I have, but I’m working on doing better.) In Think Again, organizational psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant stresses that thinking flexibly is the only way to grow our knowledge and effectiveness. While preachers often speak from faith alone and politicians and prosecutors attack the opposing side, scientist

This marks a dramatic change in applying to college. Edward B. Fiske characterizes use of average scores this year as promoting “inaccurate and misleading data” in his comprehensive and reputable college guide. Therefore, The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2022 will feature no test scores. We can predict that other guides will follow. Why? “...only 44 percent of those who applied to college through the Common Application through Feb. 15 2021 submitted SAT or ACT scores. That represe

In Sapiens, anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari examines the uniqueness of human development among other creatures. Many types of animals can communicate with one another, but only humans can communicate with specific language about what cannot be seen with the senses. Here’s an example: “As far as we know, only Sapiens can talk about entire kinds of entities that they have never seen, touched, or smelled. Legends, myths, gods, and religions appeared for the first time with the

Several colleges have essay prompts that start with the words “I believe” or “This I believe.” Students then have to fill in the rest of the sentence. I hate this. Many students figure that they must say something profound, which is never original or deep when read by an admissions officer lost in a sea of thousands of applications. Students are also apprehensive when I suggest saying something funny. Creative thinkers, like my jazz drummer from last year, used the line, “Dru

What a treat to be on a college campus again! I visited Vassar, Marist and SUNY New Paltz yesterday--my first college trip since going to the University of Tampa and the University of South Florida in February of 2020. Colleges are still being careful: Vassar and SUNY New Paltz are offering limited tours and none on weekends. My Marist tour was fabulous: the beautiful campus nestled on the Hudson River looked impeccable. While nearly the entire SUNY New Paltz campus was under