This is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you haven't recently, go look up a picture of actor Paul Rudd. Now, Ben Affleck. My guest for the show this week looks like their love child (go ahead, look it up for yourself). It's uncanny. At any rate, Sander is also a professor of psychology at Cambridge and directs the Social Decision Making lab there. In this episode, we talk about being a night owl in a morning person's world, lucid dreaming, his short-lived career getting umbrellas for bankers, increasing motivation by tying tasks into a larger goal, doing research that's meaningful for society, balancing scientific research and public outreach, "Why not just reach out to people?", perseverance ("Just send them another email"), improving as a mentor, and tackling big research questions. Hope you enjoy!
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#17: Sander van der Linden on Intrinsic Motivation