Jonah Lehrer Quotes - Page 2

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• Even when alternative views are clearly wrong, being exposed to them still expands our creative potential. In a way, the power of dissent is the power of surprise. After hearing someone shout out an errant answer, we work to understand it, which causes us to reassess our initial assumptions and try out new perspectives. “Authentic dissent can be difficult, but it’s always invigorating,” Nemeth says. “It wakes us right up.”

  Jonah Lehrer

  Views, California, Perspective

  "Groupthink: The brainstorming myth" by Jonah Lehrer, www.newyorker.com. January 30, 2012.

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• The one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Reality, Knows

  Jonah Lehrer (2011). “Proust Was a Neuroscientist”, p.12, Canongate Books

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• Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It's a skill.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Creativity, Angel, Blessing

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• Knowledge can be a subtle curse. When we learn about the world, we also learn all the reasons why the world cannot be changed. We get used to our failures and imperfections. We become numb to the possibilities of something new

  Jonah Lehrer

  Imperfection, World, Reason Why

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• The only way to maximize group creativity—to make the whole more than the sum of its parts—is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes. In part, this is because the acceptance of error reduces cost. When you believe your flaws will be quickly corrected by the group, you're less worried about perfecting your contribution, which leads to a more candid conversation. We can only get it right when we talk about what we got wrong.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Mistake, Believe, Creativity

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• It's a hard thing to describe. It's just this sense that you got something to say.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Hard, Hard Things

  Jonah Lehrer (2008). “Proust Was a Neuroscientist”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Harlow would later write, "If monkeys have taught us anything, it's that you've got to learn how to love before you learn how to live.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Writing, Taught Us, Monkeys

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• Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Mean, Ideas

  "The Truth Wears Off". www.newyorker.com. December 13, 2010.

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• A lie told well is just as good as the truth.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Lying, Wells

  Jonah Lehrer (2010). “How We Decide”, p.225, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• By the age of 3, children from wealthier households hear, on average, about 500,000 encouragements and 80,000 discouragements. The ratio is reversed in households on welfare.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Encouragement, Children, Average

  "The Socioeconomics of Parenting" by Jonah Lehrer, www.wired.com. January 21, 2011.

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• Design is the conscious imposition of meaningful order.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Meaningful, Order, Design

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• Like a work of art, we exceed our materials. Science needs art to frame the mystery, but art needs science so that not everything is a mystery. Neither truth alone is our solution, for our reality exists in plural

  Jonah Lehrer

  Art, Reality, Needs

  Jonah Lehrer (2011). “Proust Was a Neuroscientist”, p.12, Canongate Books

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• Cities force us to interact with strangers and with the strange. They pry the mind open. And that is why they are the idea that has unleashed so many of our new ideas.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Cities, Ideas, Mind

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• I always wanted to be a scientist, I always thought I'd be a scientist, that was the narrative I was carrying around. I worked in a neuroscience lab as an undergraduate and then after, almost five years in total, but I realized I just wasn't good at science. I didn't have the discipline for it.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Years, Discipline, Labs

  "Jonah Lehrer: We can all be as creative as Picasso... we just have to learn how". Interview with Tim Lewis, www.theguardian.com. April 14, 2012.

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• Every creative story is different. And every creative story is the same. There was nothing. Now there is something. It's almost like magic.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Creative, Magic, Different

  "A completely real, not at all plagiarized interview with plagiarist Jonah Lehrer". MobyLives interview, www.mhpbooks.com. November 14, 2014.

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• The great ages did not perhaps produce much more talent than ours,' [T.S.] Eliot wrote. 'But less talent was wasted.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Age, Talent, Produce

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• Rejection process is not fun. It's the red pen on the page, the discarded sketch, sometimes is the only way forward.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Fun, Way Forward, Rejection

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• ...new ideas are merely several old thoughts that occur at the exact same time.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Ideas, New Ideas

  Jonah Lehrer (2010). “How We Decide”, p.131, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• [It's] troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything. We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that's often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Believe, Mean, Ideas

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• Distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Distance, Home, Creativity

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• And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Thinking, Answers, Might

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• I want to give people theories, I want to expose them to scientific stories that force them to re-evaluate the way they use these three pounds of meat inside their head.

  Jonah Lehrer

  People, Giving, Meat

  "Jonah Lehrer: We can all be as creative as Picasso... we just have to learn how". Interview with Tim Lewis, www.theguardian.com. April 14, 2012.

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• It is ironic but true: the one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. This is why we need art. By expressing our actual experience, the artist reminds us that our science is incomplete, that no map of matter will ever explain the immateriality of our consciousness.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Art, Reality, Ironic

  Jonah Lehrer (2011). “Proust Was a Neuroscientist”, p.12, Canongate Books

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