Wisdom in diagnosis, then, involves not only deep knowledge about human biology and an understanding of the array of diseases that plague humankind but also knowledge and understanding about how the mind works in coming to conclusions. Discerning when these biases are operating in our minds is called metacognition, the ability to think about our thinking. The attribute of humility is embodied in the concept of metacognition; we recognize that our minds are imperfect, that there are limits to the validity of our assumptions, that we are subject to biases, and that therefore we must have the sharp sense to doubt our judgments and question whether we considered everything that should have been considered.

From “The Best Medicine” at In Character, by Harvard’s Jerome Groopman, M.D.

The essay focuses on the effects of cognitive bias in medical diagnoses (and why they’re bad). The practice of monitoring biases is important for any type of decision. It’s an essential aspect of open/conceptual’s “meta factors” discipline.

Designers and marketers (not to mention politicos and entertainers) have become adept at manipulating these biases in consumers and users, but I wonder how many are aware of how their own biases may affect the design process itself — or simply the question of which problem to solve…

Here is the book the launched the “heuristics & biases” paradigm and here is a list of cognitive biases that have probably influenced things you’re working on right now.

If you want some practice, try joining the discussion at Less Wrong for a few days.

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“Meta factors” are the complex, ambiguous, and largely qualitative (or at least very tricky to quantify) factors behind our experience of everything in art, science, commerce, and civics.

Think of it as building on the field of human factors — applied not just to subjects and potential users but to the researchers and designers themselves.

It involves:

• ideas about our ideas
• methods for evaluating methods
• the discipline of developing new disciplines…

The term is new but the idea & practice are as old as philosophy. In a sense, meta factors is philosophy — stripped of its historical connotations and rendered more effective for today’s challenges & opportunities.

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