Member-only story
Why The Scientific Method Won’t Make Us Popular
And why it is more important than ever
If our goal is to be the most popular member in the pack, the scientific method won’t do us any good. Yet, its principles — which most people know about or at least are familiar with — may be more important than ever.
Two Key Points
I think there are a couple of integral aspects of the modern world that explain the current lack of popularity of the scientific method applied to every day life: the obsession with now and the importance of opinion.
The Obsession With Now
The obsession with now is everywhere, present even in circles where perspective should be paramount: it is all about breaking the next piece of news, interviewing the next person who is relevant right now and not five minutes ago… It’s not only journalism: we all seem to want to listen to the latest song and read the latest book rather than the next one in our list or the one that would appear to be more in sync with our current preoccupations.
The problem with this obsession is that, like all obsessions, it only gets worse. When we narrow our scope to just the past five minutes and analyse reality as if every day started with the big bang and ended with the apocalypse, we become fish…