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Steven Pinker on Measuring Human Happiness

Debbie Millman talks to experimental psychologist and author Steven Pinker about measuring human happiness […]

On this episode of Design Observer, Debbie talks to Steven Pinker about measuring human happiness. “It’s better to be healthy than to be sick. It’s better to be literate than illiterate. Okay, let’s measure those things over time. Have they increased since the enlightenment? And the answer is, in every case, they have.”

Measuring human happiness

About Steve Pinker

These days it’s easy to feel a sense of doom. Various nuclear buttons, climate change, creeping authoritarianism here and abroad. You name it. It’s scary. But there is someone who sees hope for the future. In his new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, author Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the headlines and see the bigger picture. Health, prosperity, safety, and happiness are actually on the rise. Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist with a broad range of interests: visual cognition, psycho linguistics, and social relations. In an era of religious and political polarization Pinker argues we need science, reason, and humanism now more than ever.

Source: Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Steven Pinker: Design Observer

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP and lecturer of Project Management for UX at the M.Sc. Usability Engineering at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences .

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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