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The Need for Multidimensional Understanding

As a gateway to truth and empathy, we need to shift towards learning from a wider range of perspectives.

It Signifies a Reliable Source

You’re not stupid. Your interests are complex and multifaceted. If there existed a simple answer or solution, you’d probably already know about it. For instance, there’s a reason why you are interested in optimizing learning rather than whether learning is valuable at all — we already agree that learning is positive, but the best way to do it is still open for discussion.

It shouldn’t then come as a surprise that, when identifying a reliable source on cutting edge topics, American neuroscientist Dr.Andrew Huberman simply looks for multidimensional understanding. He responds to the question of how to identify a credible source:

When you see people talk in absolutes about anything with very strong statements about anything, that’s somewhere where you might need to pause and reflect. So, does someone have [something] that they promise fixes everything? Similarly, do they demonize [something] as the cause of all chronic disease, and if we take care of this one particular issue, then everything is fixed? Does the answer seem overly simplistic in how to tackle it?

When assessing credibility amongst the seemingly unnavigable sea of fake news, he looks for multidimensional understanding over certifications.

Can’t Experts do the Heavy Lifting for Me?

You may now be wondering, do I really need to learn directly from many perspectives? Isn’t that what experts do for me when they present their overarching conclusions in common mediums like books or articles? In his greatest work The Denial of Death, American Anthropologist Ernest Becker reasons why even the works of geniuses like Freud should be taken as single perspectives to ponder amongst the rest.

The problem of man’s knowledge is not to oppose and to demolish opposing views but to include them in a larger theoretical structure…

Usually in order to turn out a piece of work, the author has to exaggerate the emphasis of it, to oppose it in a forcefully competitive way against other versions of truth, and he gets carried away with his own exaggeration, as his distinctive image is built on it. But each honest thinker who is an empiricist has to have some truth in his position, no matter how extremely he has formulated it.

Works are responses to ongoing historical context. They argue their points too strongly in order to balance the scales against other works. We must treat them as such and explore their fields of context before extracting truth.

It Increases Empathy

Becker further argued that acknowledging the limited but existing merit of individual perspectives connects us to the lives of others through shared mortality and human experience. This no doubt leads to empathy and a long road of love and kindness.

It Provides a More Objective View of our Beliefs

Host of podcast Philosophize This! Steven West understands yet another powerful conclusion from Becker’s work. The discovered shared mortality and human experience allows for a more objective view of our held beliefs.

Maybe that can help us recognize where the desire to dehumanise or silence another groups is actually coming from. And maybe if we can get there, maybe we can learn to differentiate which of these illusions we cling to are life affirming, which ones serve others, which ones are not in fact a direct threat to our existence, which of those promote the freedom, dignity, and hope of other people. And then on the other hand, which of these illusions are just about us being immoral? A desperate attempt to calm a scared monkey that doesn’t like the idea of not being the most important monkey in the world.

Understanding our beliefs for what they are and their worldly consequences sets the stage for their manipulation for a better world.

These two takeaways should not be taken lightly from Becker. He is known as a pessimist as his philosophy asserts that our greatest motivator is fear of death.

Conclusion

Learning from a range of perspectives offers more reliable information, holistic understanding, increased empathy, a more objective and pragmatic understanding of our beliefs, and a better world.

Where to Start

While experts don’t do a very good job fairly representing these perspectives, Hunome does.

Hunome is a platform for multidimensional understanding. It is a space where all perspectives can be heard regardless of the popularity of their authors. Your unique view point is in good company. Join us to learn from and contribute to holistic understanding.

Works Cited

Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. Free Press. 31 December 1973.

Ferriss, Tim. “#521: Dr.Andrew Huberman — A Neurobiologist on Optimising Sleep, Enhancing Performance, Reducing Anxiety, Increasing Testosterone, and Using the Body to Control the Mind” The Tim Ferriss Show, Dr.Andrew Huberman, 7 July 2021. Spotify

West, Steven. “Episode #163 … The Creation of Meaning — Escape From Evil” Philosophise This!, 2 March 2022. Spotify

Hunome at MozFest 2022 – Tackling misinformation with perspectives

in Hunome/by Dominique Jaurola

The purpose of Hunome is to help humanity make sense of itself on a collective insights platform.

Our members build shared understanding on Hunome. Members build on their own theme of interest and curiosity or they join others. This enables sharing one’s knowledge to contexts rather than in bits and pieces.

At MozFest 2022 our participants built a multidimensional shared understanding on misinformation.

When we planned the event we knew that misinformation was an important matter to tackle. This is in order for humanity to come back to a constructive track.

Reaching a shared understanding or building an understanding for self seems hard to achieve online today.

We humans have made enemies of people who disagree on anything. “Us and them” has become very pronounced.

At the time of MozFest 2022 the world was again facing the tragic causes of misinformation. False narratives lead to serious consequences.

Those who have been influenced by the one-sided messages for years will swallow it, thus helping the bad to happen.

Evil happens when good people do nothing. If you have been influenced heavily about the true nature of evil or any situation you will not know how to act. Not an excuse but a reality of what has happened and is happening.

On Hunome this one sided view of the world is hard to achieve. We love to see the multidisciplinary perspectives. This enables us to flex our perceptiveness muscle.

Human ingenuity is wonderful in what kinds of connections we humans make. On Hunome we assist serendipity, which is the secret sauce for creativity and innovation.

So, the goal of the session was to create a shared understanding about the causes, impacts and fixes of misinformation.

During our MozFest workshop we focused on understanding misinformation itself as a theme. Hunome tackles misinformation in any theme with its structure of bringing perspectives together.

Now we seek your input to this goal.

We would love for you to add your thoughts to this evolving ‘SparkMap’. Our members Spark each other to new heights through connecting the dots.

Do you have great insight into the history of misinformation? Some we found in an article published on the BBC. We would love to hear anthropological, sociological and psychological sets of perspectives. Maybe you have perspectives about the rise and fall of civilizations.

Here are some directions of the thinking we got to during the workshop. The work is never finished with new studies, thoughts and ideas continuing to build a deeper understanding.

SparkMap Orbit views from the workshop

Misinformation is rife was the kick off ‘Spark’

…to spark our thinking. Our members build in different ways depending on their ways of thinking and subject matter.

Causes of misinformation

In the interest of time we from Hunome filled the ‘causes’ part a bit but it awaits many kinds of inputs from you. Getting to the root causes happens when you ask yourself why does the perspective you read happen and keep asking. Often after a while in the train of thought you come to very human root causes. False information becomes successful due to very human reasons. These are for example manipulation, trust, fear, coping, lack of transparency, needs, greed and ego.

Impacts of misinformation

It might be interesting to build on this by adding your Spark as the impact of the impact and getting to some very interesting impacts as a train of thought.

Fixing misinformation

Some very good ideas here from our participants. Do come and add yours. SparkMaps know no limits.

How human-centered design can help companies survive the COVID-19 pandemic

in Humanness/by Mika Raulas

So here we are. Twelve months on from the global spread of Covid-19 and the end is still a distant, blurry dot on the horizon. The impact that the pandemic has had on society is undeniable, so how can human-centered design help companies get through the uncertainty that lies ahead?

Misconceptions around human-centered (human-aware) design

You may think that a bit of research to understand your stakeholder groups might be enough to give you a path forward through rocky plains. After all, if you run an employee focus group, they’ll tell you how you can motivate them to work from home, right?

Wrong. Dominique Jaurola makes a great case for why understanding humanness can help you make better decisions, but I want to look at how you can use human-centered design to build business resilience during and after the pandemic.

It’s astounding how the word ‘design’ conjures up lofty thoughts of a graphic or product designer doing amazing things. In the context of lean, agile and human-centered business, everything is designed with purpose that revolves around humans.

So let’s look at the four human-centered design principles:

Understand the core problem
Focus on the humans
Everything is a system
Iterate, prototype and test – fast

1. Understand the core problem

It’s easy to spot a problem, but when companies start considering where it stems from and what other areas of the business are impacted, they start to solve the fundamental, underlying issues, not just the symptoms. Researcher, professor and author Don Norman talks about fundamental problems and symptoms of problems, and you can read his take on the four human-centered design principles.

Back in March 2020, when countries began to lockdown, many companies were presented with the problem: can our employees work from home? A quick fix may have been to adopt some kind of video conferencing software, or to ensure that all employees had a work laptop.

While these solutions would have certainly fixed the immediate issue, a human-centered design approach may have addressed the problem like this: do our processes allow for business continuity? A more thorough investigation down this path, would’ve revealed that a new laptop wasn’t the quick solve that was needed. Support and guidance on how to manage one’s timetables, working positions and conditions, etc could have been addressed right away, not just when problems arose later down the line. And how about the customer experience?

2. Focus on the humans

The pandemic has demanded that businesses show their human sides to employees, customers, but other stakeholders also. But in order to show their own humanness, and to truly embrace human-centered design, companies must understand the needs of all the humans who are involved, while taking account of the history, culture, beliefs, and environment of the community.

Companies need to show that they genuinely understand and care about the people that are behind them. This is an idea that we heard time and time again, from companies at WebSummit last year.

While considering your stakeholders needs is crucial, so is bringing them along on the journey. Whether developing a product, finding a solution to a problem, or rolling out a new process, involving the people who are going to be impacted is a sure fire way to get their buy-in. Particularly at a time where companies are having to pivot quickly, following this human-centered design principle enables them to believe in what you are trying to achieve.

3. Everything is a system

Far too often, technology is introduced to solve a particular issue, without considering the implications on other interconnected factors within a system. Rather than focusing on isolated components, companies should consider the entire activity that is impacted.

For example, eagerness to install a chatbot programme to support customer service, may reduce the time a customer has to wait before they receive a response, but it may also increase the number of misdirected customer queries, leading to increased dissatisfaction. It doesn’t matter how good the customer service managers are, being sent off in the wrong direction will almost certainly result in a poor experience.

By considering the whole system, you can design holistically while considering what really matters to the people involved.

4. Iterate, prototype and test – fast

Implementation of changes requires patience to try, rethink and repeat until you find the right combination for what you want to achieve.

We often hear that agility is the key for business growth and innovation, and being flexible is important now, more than ever. The companies that are able to try something new, then go back to the drawing board and repeat, are the ones that have proven their ability to adapt to the instability that Covid-19 has presented.

Two notable examples are Zoom, which has managed to scale up and roll out new features at a phenomenal rate, and AirBnB, which has managed to pivot it’s entire approach to the vacation market, from holidays abroad to home stays.

And of course, those who consult with their stakeholders throughout the process, will find that people are forgiving when something doesn’t work if they can play a part in making it better.

See the problem, and see it well

Philosopher Karl Popper said ‘all life is problem solving’. He was very much on point with the attitude with which we can move forward in tough times. Right now, it may feel like companies are trying to build on shifting sands but taking a human-centered design approach helps to shift the perspective from what is right for the company to what is right for the humans who surround it.

Or as a Hunome member recently put it: ‘See the problem, see it well, from the direction of what matters in the world.’

To see how Hunome can help you apply human-centered (human-aware) design to your business, sign up for Hunome.