5 How to evaluate a claim or innovation

It is worth pausing for you to think how you will evaluate such claims or innovations. You will take three steps:

1. First, you will need to pin down exactly what is the claim that is being made? Often the words, language and, perhaps, use of a newsworthy story can often make it difficult to extract the central argument or, in this case, the claimed impact of an innovation.
2. Second, look for research evidence, preferably from a scientific journal or credible publication, or examples showing the support of other unbiased organisations. Remember the support of a commercial organisation might be more about money, rather than an endorsement of any claims being valid.
3. Finally, short articles such as those in WIRED will often present the information in a very short outline. Is there any key information missing that would help evaluate the claim further?

You will briefly consider these points for innovation 7 (‘The filter that spots trainability’) before spending more time on innovation 14 (‘Tools designed to warm up the mind’).