The US Social Security system has been heading toward insolvency for decades, with the program now projected to run a 25% deficit by a little after 2030, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Despite…
Nik Wallenda says he doesn’t take unreasonable risks.
EPA/Tannen Maury
This is the fourth article in a series, How we make decisions, which explores our decision-making processes. How well do we consider all factors involved in a decision, and what helps and what holds us…
Sports officials make judgements in the moment, but are judged in hindsight. How do they meet that challenge?
Harris Walker/Flickr
This is the third article in a series, How we make decisions, which explores our decision-making processes. How well do we consider all factors involved in a decision, and what helps and what holds us…
You might never know that you’re hard of thinking.
Robin Zebrowski/Flickr
This is the second article in a series, How we make decisions, which explores our decision-making processes. How well do we consider all factors involved in a decision, and what helps and what holds us…
Our brains make judgements about images before we’re even aware of making a decision.
A Health Blog/Flickr
This is the first article in a series, How we make decisions, which explores our decision-making processes. How well do we consider all factors involved in a decision, and what helps and what holds us…
Earthquake in Haiti killed more than 100,000. That’s hard to imagine.
UNDP
People find it difficult to understand the true value of loss of life when the numbers are large. For instance, a study found that people are more willing to donate money to an organisation when just one…
A coal seam gas pilot well from the Santos Narrabri Gas Project in New South Wales, which has divided opinion in the local community.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Can you match the following three statements with the answers just below? Coal seam gas is bad for the environment and we should all protest against its use. Genetically modified foods are a part of multinational…
The heat is on. And referees can get it wrong.
Tolga Bozoglu/EPA
There has been much hand-wringing over the problems that World Cup players are facing due to the environmental extremes they are exposed to in Brazil. There has been little sympathy for the men in black…
It’s been a crazy year for decision making. Not only did we have an election, we now have the threat of a double dissolution if the Federal Senate keeps knocking back bills from the House of Representatives…
Is there a better way to face the challenges of the future?
Clown image from www.shutterstock.com
As a nation we pay too much attention to the sensational and the short-term. Whether it’s a social media spat, a gaffe in question time, or a political interview that runs off the rails – our national…
Decision makers who feels powerful are more likely to consider their future selves, rather than immediate or short-term gains…
Overwhelmed: to live wisely in a world where complexity seems to be running rampant, we must first grasp what complexity is.
Flickr/Elif Ayiter/Alpha Auer/..../
In part nine of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Cliff Hooker argues that to get any better at decision-making, we must first face up to our limitations. Global challenge 9: How can the…
Julia Gillard espouses “evidence-based” policy and Bob Hawke set up a Future Commission, but policy-making is necessarily subject to all manner of short-term pressures.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
In part five of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Scott Prasser questions easy sloganeering about the importance of “long-term” policy-making. Global challenge 5: How can policymaking be…
Are you a rational thinker, or do you make decisions based on intuition?
alistairh
Are you the “lazy” or the “deliberate” thinker? Why can’t we have a hybrid? Something has been bugging me for quite a while – how difficult it is to strike a balance between thinking fast, albeit impulsively…