David Robson has spent his career studying the ways the human mind helps us, fools us, heals us, and connects us to one another.

As the author of The Intelligence Trap, The Expectation Effect, and The Laws of Connection, Robson has explored a question that sits near the center of Office Hours. Why do capable people make bad decisions, get trapped by their own certainty, underestimate the power of belief, and forget that thinking is never something we do alone?

In this episode, we talk about the traps that come with intelligence, the biology of expectation, the science of social connection, and why smarter thinking begins with a little less faith in being smart. Robson explains why expertise can harden into overconfidence, how our beliefs can alter health, performance, and motivation, and why the people around us shape our minds more t ...