Hidden Brain | 12 December 2017 | 0h 29m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with psychologist Alison Gopnik, author of The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children. Many parents think they can shape their child into a particular kind of adult, like a carpentry project. But Gopnik explains why it’s more realistic to see parenting as akin to gardening, where you create the best conditions, without any promises on the outcomes. Includes astonishing insight that both children and AI robots learn more about an item’s functionality if they play with it rather than being taught.