Developing Practical Wisdom Through Failure and Resilience

We've probably all seen instances where dumb rules and regulations were enforced even when everyone involved understood they were enforcing dumb rules and regulations. We've created so many rules that we no longer know how to use common sense to guide us. At least that's the argument my guest on today's podcast makes in his book Practical Wisdom. Barry Schwartz is a professor of psychology at Swathmore College. In his book, Practical Wisdom, Schwartz highlights how our society has been overtaken by rules and regulation leaving people very little room to exercise their discretion. This overreliane on rules can have disasterous consequences. Instead of rules, Schwartz argues that we need to revive the ancient Greek concept of phronesis, or practical wisdom. Today in the podcast, we discuss how to do just that.