At the core of his latest book, Christian Madsbjerg argues that business people focus too much on what we might call the “thin data” and ignore the “thick data.” That we are emphasizing too much the analytical, and ignoring the insights that can come from what some people might call the intuitive.

Christian Madsbjerg is a Professor of Applied Humanities at The New School and Co-Founder of the pioneering consultancy Red Associates, a consultancy with offices in Copenhagen and New York City. For two decades he has worked as a management consultant, mostly dealing with companies in trouble. 

Greg and Christian dive into his latest book, Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, touching on the Silicon Valley mindset, the art of framework selection and dating apps.

What is human observation

So that's what I mean by human observation that, you know, just shut up, you know, and, try to leave your political opinions, your preconceived notions behind for a little while. And see what's going on, you know? And that is for me phenomenology, when it's practical and applicable.

A problem with how we teach students

And I think we often take very smart, creative students and we educate them out of the possibility of using what they learn and they end up not using what they learned. 

On corporations & the humanities

What I found was that when big decisions are made in large corporations about things that touch our lives, there is an empty seat.

• Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life by Gillian Tett
• The Peregrine by J. A. Baker
• Hubert Dreyfus
• Clifford Geertz
• Abduction

• Faculty Profile at The New School
• Professional Profile at ReD Associates
• Christian Madsbjerg’s Website
• Christian Madsbjerg on LinkedIn

• Christian Madsbjerg in Harvard Business Review
• Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm
• The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Toughest Business Problems