Rolf Dobelli on world improvers

The notion than an individual can change the world is one of the greatest ideologies of our century - and one of its grandest illusions.  In it, two cognitive biases are intertwined.  One is the focusing illusion, which we saw Daniel Kahneman explain in Chapter 11: "Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it."  When you peer at a map through a magnifying glass, the areas you're looking at are enlarged.  Our attention functions in much the same way: when we're engrossed in our campaign to change the world, its significance appears much greater than it actually is.  We systematically overestimate the importance of our projects.

The second cognitive bias is known as the intentional stance, a term coined by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett.  Under the intentional stance we assume an intention behind every change - regardless of whether or not it was actually intentional.  So when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, it was because somebody had deliberately brought about its collapse.  The end of apartheid in South Africa would not have been possible without a campaigner like Nelson Mandela.  India needed Gandhi to gain independence.  Smartphones needed Steve Jobs.  Without Oppenheimer, no atomic bomb.  Without Einstein, no relativity theory.  Without Benz, no cars.  Without Tim Berners-Lee, no World Wide Web.  Behind every global development we posit a human being willing it into existence.

~ Rolf Dobelli, The Art of the Good Life (2017), "The Illusion of Changing the World - Part I," p. 163