Philosophy For Our Times Taking leave of reason | Joanna Kavenna, Rory Sutherland, Rebecca Roache
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Nov 28, 2023 
Renowned guests Joanna Kavenna, Rory Sutherland, and Rebecca Roache debate the importance of reason in an increasingly chaotic modern age. They question its value in decision-making, explore the complexity of human behavior, discuss the role of serendipity in discovery, and highlight the unintended consequences of pushing rationality to extremes. The podcast explores the balance and limits of reason, reflecting on the parallels between science and the online world, and the value of embracing irrationality.
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Double Debate Ritual
- Ancient Persians debated important matters twice: sober and drunk, acting only when both judgments agreed.
- Sutherland presents this as a balance between logical sense and instinctive resonance.
Don’t Let Spreadsheets Gatekeep Ideas
- Avoid treating spreadsheetable financial cases as the sole justification for action.
- Rory Sutherland urges preserving room for experimentation and non‑quantifiable judgement in business.
Instincts Manage Optionality, Not Optima
- Human decision-making often values optionality and minimizing catastrophic worst cases over mathematical optimality.
- Sutherland notes instincts handle variance and optionality that formal models struggle to capture.