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This is the typical pop-sci cycle, and it happens over and over again. Someone neatly packages and oversimplifies a concept (power posing, the importance of sle

by Gatsky 6y ago

This is the typical pop-sci cycle, and it happens over and over again. Someone neatly packages and oversimplifies a concept (power posing, the importance of sleep, even thinking fast & slow), which is swallowed whole and heralded as a wonderful insight by the general public, bringing the individual fame and fortune. The concept is then dismantled over time and found to be at best, 'difficult to replicate', and at worse, just made up.

jstgord 6y ago
Reading this comment, it felt like you were describing the education system. I'm waiting for someone to write a best-seller on the "Heat Theory of Education" [ Knowledge, in a given domain, flows from a knowledge-hot person to a knowledge-cool person, proportional to the differential, with some things between them acting as insulator or a conductor ] It would be a nice bulwark against the pervasive meme that 'teaching is domain-less' aka "if you know how to teach you can teach anything"
- enkid 6y ago
  I've been studying teaching a lot lately, and one of the things all of the books say is that mastery of the material is required but not sufficient to be a good teacher. The other skills, which basically come down to organization and emotional intelligence seem to be universal. In other words teaching as a skill is domainless but being a good teacher requires subject mastery.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > the "Heat Theory of Education" [ Knowledge, in a given domain, flows from a knowledge-hot person to a knowledge-cool person, proportional to the differential Geez, that's some epic wishful thinking. A higher differential impedes the flow of knowledge.
TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
I studied Kübler-Ross in university when she was still in vogue. It wasn’t pop-sci. How many of the examples you mention are included in top-tier university psychology and medicine degrees?
- analog31 6y ago
  The Piaget stages and psychoanalysis are a couple of examples that come to mind. Both were topics of the psychology textbooks belonging to my roommates. I have asked experts in a variety of fields about how they cope with the replication crisis, and the typical response is: "Yes there is a lot of bunk being published, but we know good research from bad." This has included people with advanced degrees in psychology, business administration, and medicine.

by Gatsky 6y ago

jstgord 6y ago

Reading this comment, it felt like you were describing the education system. I'm waiting for someone to write a best-seller on the "Heat Theory of Education" [ Knowledge, in a given domain, flows from a knowledge-hot person to a knowledge-cool person, proportional to the differential, with some things between them acting as insulator or a conductor ] It would be a nice bulwark against the pervasive meme that 'teaching is domain-less' aka "if you know how to teach you can teach anything"

enkid 6y ago
I've been studying teaching a lot lately, and one of the things all of the books say is that mastery of the material is required but not sufficient to be a good teacher. The other skills, which basically come down to organization and emotional intelligence seem to be universal. In other words teaching as a skill is domainless but being a good teacher requires subject mastery.
thaumasiotes 6y ago
> the "Heat Theory of Education" [ Knowledge, in a given domain, flows from a knowledge-hot person to a knowledge-cool person, proportional to the differential Geez, that's some epic wishful thinking. A higher differential impedes the flow of knowledge.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago

I studied Kübler-Ross in university when she was still in vogue. It wasn’t pop-sci. How many of the examples you mention are included in top-tier university psychology and medicine degrees?

analog31 6y ago
The Piaget stages and psychoanalysis are a couple of examples that come to mind. Both were topics of the psychology textbooks belonging to my roommates. I have asked experts in a variety of fields about how they cope with the replication crisis, and the typical response is: "Yes there is a lot of bunk being published, but we know good research from bad." This has included people with advanced degrees in psychology, business administration, and medicine.