i was worried too, like anybody whoki did not want to write a book that was how to win friends and influence people. Part to i idid i wasn't trying to create some sort of guide for brain washing. I wanted this to be, why is it that i can't seem to get people into what? And why is nothing going why alel these conversations? Ayou know, crashing against the side of the mountain here.
To the Founding Fathers it was free libraries. To the 19th century rationalist philosophers it was a system of public schools. Today it's access to the internet. Since its beginnings, Americans have believed that if facts and information were available to all, a democratic utopia would prevail. But missing from these well-intentioned efforts, says author and journalist David McRaney, is the awareness that people's opinions are unrelated to their knowledge and intelligence. In fact, he explains, the better educated we become, the better we are at rationalizing what we already believe. Listen as the author of How Minds Change speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about why it's so hard to change someone's mind, the best way to make it happen (if you absolutely must), and why teens are hard-wired not to take good advice from older people even if they are actually wiser.