Digital Smarts - How to Avoid the “Google Search Curse”

It is too easy today for people to search for answers online, says Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at New York University Stern School of Business, who calls this trend the "Google Search Curse". Damodaran says that because we can look up answers to probelms immediately, we’re losing the agility – not just the ability - to look at a problem and solve it. He teaches his students to avoid this -- and how to be "intellectually nimble" -- by training them how to think for themselves, not just accept other people’s solutions to issues, and think through problems.

He says that obviously fact-based questions are different. You can say, “Hey, go look up on Google search what the tallest mountain in the world is.” Reasoning your way into a factual answer is not going to give you a better answer. But if your question is more analytical, he feels there is an advantage to taking a 30-minute break before you open up Google search and look for an answer.