“Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity.”

Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.

similar topics

• The orange peel theory says asking your partner to peel an orange tests their love. Can small favors really measure a relationship, and should you ever test a partner?
• A bilingual person remembers the same event differently depending on which language they tell it in. Describing an accident in English they focus on who did it; in Spanish, on what happened, because the grammar pushes them that way. Does memory hold what we lived, or what we said about it?
• Egocentrism: a small child assumes you see exactly the view they see. How and when do we develop the ability to take someone else's perspective inside our own head?
• The sunk cost fallacy: why do we keep going with something we know is over, telling ourselves 'but I've put so much into it'? How do past losses take our future decisions hostage?
• The illusion of understanding, watching a great explainer gives the feeling of knowledge without the substance, and the feeling is addictive.