New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty And Change
All of us are attuned to things that are new or unfamiliar because they convey vital information about potential threats and resources. The “love of the new,” or neophilia, is hardwired into our brains at the deepest levels. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the mind-boggling number of new things that bombard us daily. The amount of new information that we handle has quadrupled in the last thirty years and shows no sign of slowing—we must look beyond such secondary issues as voracious consumerism, attention problems, and electronics addiction to refocus on neophilia’s true purpose: to learn about and create the new things that actually matter. Whether we love change, avoid change, or take the middle path, neophilia plays a crucial role in all of our lives. We can embrace our changing world AND live a fuller, saner life.
Speaker Details
Winifred Gallagher is a science journalist for numerous publications, including Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone and the New York Times. She is the author of several books including, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions and Just The Way you Are: How Heredity and Experience Create the Individual, which was a New York Times notable book of the year.
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- Speakers:
- Winifred Gallagher
- Affiliation:
- Winifred Gallagher
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Jeff Running
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