Would more thinking time stop smart people from doing dumb things?
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A professor of organisational behaviour thinks technology and the loss of smoking breaks have sent our "thinking time" to the grave, so he has devised a simple healthy solution.
On a weekday in Westminster I find myself in a deck chair, relaxing in front of Big Ben.
When I say relaxing I'm exaggerating a bit.
It's London, so the weather's rubbish, the roads are packed and hundreds of pedestrians pass by each minute, many scurrying towards the halls of British Parliament.
According to my host Professor Andre Spicer, who is lazing in the deck chair next to me, it's the perfect place for a bit of "pop-up philosophy".
"It's quite simple. I just put out two deck chairs, a sign and encourage people to sit down, reflect and think a bit," he explains.
'Workplaces encourage smart people to not use their brains'
Professor Spicer, a professor of organisational behaviour, has spent a fair chunk of life trying to work out why very clever people do very stupid things, even at some of the world's biggest companies.
"So we found there are many organisations that employ incredibly smart people with fine education, but then they encourage those people not to use their brains at all," he says.
During his research he has witnessed doctors prioritise paperwork over patients, army officers run rebranding exercises instead of military ones, companies unnecessarily copy others and intelligent people follow leaders, or managers, like lemmings.
"If you're clever you quickly learn the lessons of your workplace," he says.
"You'll probably get promoted if you stay quiet and tick the boxes.
"You might be more popular too, sometimes people get threatened when too many tough questions are asked.
"In the short-term it pays, things happen, but in the longer term it can lead to big mistakes being made."
Common mistakes include repeating past failures, starting projects that won't work or investing too heavily in the wrong thing.
Why are we on deck chairs?
"I think we need to encourage thought," Professor Spicer says.
"I've been doing this in public places people might think of as 'stupidity intensive', so outside the stock exchange, outside the houses of parliament."
His sign urges people to stop, sit down and just think.
"Five minutes, ten minutes is a waste of time," he says.
"But we spend three or four hours a day wasting our time doing things like emails or sitting in pointless meetings.
"So, why can't we sit outside and think about our assumptions or ideas?"
"I think that would lead to a far better public life with far better informed debate and far better decisions in organisations."
Worryingly, Professor Spicer believes the lack of thinking time is largely a modern problem.
He blames smart phones for increasingly interrupting "thought on buses, trains or in queues", and a decline in nicotine dependency in most Western countries.
"The ban of smoking has killed this-five minute little break we used to have," he says.
"So we need to create more healthy ways of doing that and this [sitting on deck chairs] could maybe be one.
"I'd love to see people doing this in their own neighbourhoods — give it a try."
Topics: philosophy, human-interest, work, community-and-society, united-kingdom
