Changing minds, starting with mine
I was absorbed in Ezra Klein’s interview with Julia Galef, whose work looks at how we think and argue, and at the cognitive biases that trap us into preferring answers that make us feel good to answers that are true. Which leads me to this post…
As co-founder and core team member of WISE — WASH in Southeast Asia, I develop and implement activities that ultimately aim to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in an equitable and sustainable manner. Therefore I spend a lot of time thinking about whether what WISE is doing makes sense, and whether it will achieve its intended impact.
Do good, rather than feel good. That’s why we don’t build wells (unless it makes sense), but train people to know when to build wells. That’s why we don’t just produce reports, but invite people to share their thoughts so we can improve on our projects. That’s why we arequick to pursue new ideas, but take our time to properly understand them before jumping into implementation.
Take our idea to Gamify WASH. Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles based on an intimate understanding of human psychology and neurochemistry. Used widely in online and mobile applications, we are currently working to apply this approach with schoolchildren in low-income communities in Indonesia to improve waste management. We could easily carry out conventional awareness-raising activities with the schoolchildren and be done with it, but we want to do better, and create habits that stick.
That’s why I am very excited to be participating in UNLEASH Innovation Lab 2017. This is an amazing opportunity to engage in constructive conversation on ideas with hundreds of young people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, in the spirit of problem-solving and co-creation. While I am looking forward to working on the theme of water (of course!), I am just as keen to meet those in the themes of food, energy, sustainable product and consumption, education and ICT, urban sustainability and health. Because it is only when we challenge ourselves to learn and understand from each other that we may discover new insights and create disruptive solutions that address the underlying causes of poverty.
So I would like you to challenge me on my ideas, and I would love to learn about yours. Who knows? We could come up with an idea that transforms the world.
