Monday, May 20, 2013

Tying Today's Posts Together: Synchronicity, Serendipity and the Baader-Meinhof Phenomena

Take Professor Shiller from this morning's "Investors Shift Fundamental Focus to 2014" and combine with the post immediately below, "Not Quite Clear on the Concept: How to Take Advantage of the Sharing Economy" and you end up with something like Business Insider's "ROBERT SHILLER: Neuroeconomics Will Reshape The Finance System":
Economist Robert Shiller has argued in favor of the "genuine beauty" in finance.

He believes that financial instruments can contribute to a better society because humans have an innate tendency towards generosity.

In an interview published by Credit Suisse he says that that finance recognizes "the egotistical side of human nature. This presents potential for conflict."
But these are things that he argues neuroeconomics will help shape in coming decade. Here is an excerpt from the interview...MORE
This is an example of synchronicity (both links to Wikipedia):
Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner.... 
But may be confused with serendipity:
Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it....
This post may or may not be useful, your call.
Either way it is not a case of Baader-Meinhof Phenomena:
You may have heard about Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon before. In fact, you probably learned about it for the first time very recently. If not, then you just might hear about it again very soon. Baader-Meinhof is the phenomenon where one happens upon some obscure piece of information-- often an unfamiliar word or name-- and soon afterwards encounters the same subject again, often repeatedly. Anytime the phrase "That's so weird, I just heard about that the other day" would be appropriate, the utterer is hip-deep in Baader-Meinhof.
Most people seem to have experienced the phenomenon at least a few times in their lives, and many people encounter it with such regularity that they anticipate it upon the introduction of new information. But what is the underlying cause? Is there some hidden meaning behind Baader-Meinhof events?

The phenomenon bears some similarity to synchronicity, which is the experience of having a highly meaningful coincidence... such as having someone telephone you while you are thinking about them....
-via Damn Interesting