The War on Sensemaking I Daniel Schmachtenberger (2019)

What can we trust? Why is the ‘information ecology’ so damaged, and what would it take to make it healthy?

The War on Sensemaking | Daniel Schmachtenberger (Rebel Wisdom)

• 00:00:15 what can we trust? 
• 00:04:43 don't dumb it down 
• 00:10:23 our broken information ecology 
• 00:16:21 true vs truthful 
• 00:25:18 attention hijack 
• 00:27:39 true vs truthful 
• 00:46:13 how bad ideas defend themselves 
• 01:12:50 giving up on sensemaking 
• 01:22:45 what can we do 
• 01:37:05 examine your own sensemaking 

Comments

Trusting Information

The central message of this talk by Daniel Schmachtenberger is that we cannot trust any of the information in our global digital information ecosystem as it is severely polluted.

This is a critical issue as we need high-quality information to make sense of the world and without good sensemaking, we cannot act wisely.

Jeff Jarvis in a blog post Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation also talks about information pollution and the fact that trust and manipulation are our real problems.

Memetics

I like what what Daniel has to say  but I disagree with how he describes the information ecology in terms memetics that is, in my opinion, and many others, pseudoscience. When listening to him, in my head, I translate the word meme into idea or belief.

Information Ecology

I am not sure that the metaphor of an information ecology is a wholly apt one as discussed in this paper Information in the ecosystem: Against the “information ecosystem” but it is sufficiently useful that I would choose to use it,

Trusting scientific papers

At one point, early in his talk, Daniel explains why we cannot trust scientific papers . If you think his attitude is misguided especially given the peer-review process most papers go through then read this article in the Atlantic, Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science which explains why much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. It is a serious issue.

The War on Sensemaking Video Series

1. The War on Sensemaking I Daniel Schmachtenberger (2019)
2. The War on Sensemaking II Daniel Schmachtenberger (2019)
3. The War on Sensemaking III, the Infinite Game Jamie Wheal (2020)
4. The War on Sensemaking IV, Pandemic & Conspiracy Daniel Schmachtenberger (2020)
5. The War on Sensemaking V Daniel Schmachtenberger (2020)

•  Opinion Polarization We are polarized across political, religious, moral, and racial divides
•  Pollution of the Global Information Ecosystem The contamination of information with false and misleading material
•  The Four Levels of Knowledge Management The relation between Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management
•  The Global Information Ecosystem We live in a vast sea of information