Does a complex world need simpler rules?
Does a complex world need simpler rules?
Rory Sutherland:
Absolute rules (if X, then Y) work with the grain of human nature. We feel far more guilt running a red light than breaking a speed limit. Notice that almost all religious laws are absolute: no food is half kosher; it is or it isn’t. No Old Testament prophet proposed something as daft as the French 35-hour ‘working-time directive’: they invented the Sabbath instead.
Interesting point of view. The problem indeed stems from the difficulty to agree on absolute rules. That’s why we compromise.
Does a complex world need simpler rules?
www.spectator.co.uk/life/the-…
Rory Sutherland:
Absolute rules (if X, then Y) work with the grain of human nature. We feel far more guilt running a red light than breaking a speed limit. Notice that almost all religious laws are absolute: no food is half kosher; it is or it isn’t. No Old Testament prophet proposed something as daft as the French 35-hour ‘working-time directive’: they invented the Sabbath instead.
Interesting point of view. The problem indeed stems from the difficulty to agree on absolute rules. That’s why we compromise.
When Dropbox launched, there were at least half a dozen other “online storage” businesses in existence. The Apple iPod entered a market litered with crappy MP3 players. Google was famously the Nth Internet search engine. Stripe launched into a market crowded with Braintree and Paypal, and before that Authorize.net and others. Uber was not the first way you could order a taxi, although their spin on black cars was unique. Facebook was yet another social network in a market “saturated” by Myspace, Friendster, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5 and others.
Some good ideas have a lot of bad implementations before someone comes in and does it well enough to win big.
Some words of wisdom for entrepreneurs that too many people forget.
When Dropbox launched, there were at least half a dozen other “online storage” businesses in existence. The Apple iPod entered a market litered with crappy MP3 players. Google was famously the Nth Internet search engine. Stripe launched into a market crowded with Braintree and Paypal, and before that Authorize.net and others. Uber was not the first way you could order a taxi, although their spin on black cars was unique. Facebook was yet another social network in a market “saturated” by Myspace, Friendster, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5 and others.
Some good ideas have a lot of bad implementations before someone comes in and does it well enough to win big.
Some words of wisdom for entrepreneurs that too many people forget.
Everything you need to know about sleep but were afraid to ask
Everything you need to know about sleep but were afraid to ask
We spend one third of our lives sleeping, it’s crucial for muscle recovery, fact retention and preparing the body to operate at full speed the next day, sleep is one of the most important things when it comes to day-to-day happiness. From students studying late into the night reducing the amount of information they retain to athletes sleeping in warm and loud environments missing out on crucial muscle and immune system recovery.
Follow the link, as there is more.
Everything you need to know about sleep but were afraid to ask
We spend one third of our lives sleeping, it’s crucial for muscle recovery, fact retention and preparing the body to operate at full speed the next day, sleep is one of the most important things when it comes to day-to-day happiness. From students studying late into the night reducing the amount of information they retain to athletes sleeping in warm and loud environments missing out on crucial muscle and immune system recovery.
Follow the link, as there is more.
Why are we obsessed with causation?
Why are we obsessed with causation?
If one thing must constitute human nature, it must be our overwhelming tendency to attribute causes and effects to the things around us. The whole article gives interesting exmaples.
In the 1940s, psychologist Albert Michotte theorized that “we see causality, just as directly as we see color,” as if it is omnipresent. To make his case, he devised presentations in which paper shapes moved around and came into contact with each other. When subjects—who could only see the shapes moving against a solid-colored background—were asked to describe what they saw, they concocted quite imaginative causal stories.
Why are we obsessed with causation?
www.psmag.com/science/c… miller-mccune/main_feed (Pacific Standard - Main Feed
If one thing must constitute human nature, it must be our overwhelming tendency to attribute causes and effects to the things around us. The whole article gives interesting exmaples.
In the 1940s, psychologist Albert Michotte theorized that “we see causality, just as directly as we see color,” as if it is omnipresent. To make his case, he devised presentations in which paper shapes moved around and came into contact with each other. When subjects—who could only see the shapes moving against a solid-colored background—were asked to describe what they saw, they concocted quite imaginative causal stories.
My memory is a bit strained on the details, but I think it went something like this: As news broke of a MIT police officer being gunned down, followed by a hot-pursuit car chase between the two suspects in Monday’s bombing, I was bellied up to the Tavern’s rustic, centuries-old bar. I remember saying something like “blarphgmchp” out loud, which in my head sounded like “Good lord friends, this week has really been a doozie, what?” And that’s when I got a text by a girl I know who lives up a cruelly steep hill from the bar. At 2 a.m. To come over. Somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, the little guy driving my core motor skills gave me just enough digital dexterity to reply with a “sure”. Shit’s hitting the fan, I thought. May as well.
The story of a one-nighter during the Boston lockdown.
My memory is a bit strained on the details, but I think it went something like this: As news broke of a MIT police officer being gunned down, followed by a hot-pursuit car chase between the two suspects in Monday’s bombing, I was bellied up to the Tavern’s rustic, centuries-old bar. I remember saying something like “blarphgmchp” out loud, which in my head sounded like “Good lord friends, this week has really been a doozie, what?” And that’s when I got a text by a girl I know who lives up a cruelly steep hill from the bar. At 2 a.m. To come over. Somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, the little guy driving my core motor skills gave me just enough digital dexterity to reply with a “sure”. Shit’s hitting the fan, I thought. May as well.
The story of a one-nighter during the Boston lockdown.
Compare your wealth and see that you belong to the 1%
Compare your wealth and see that you belong to the 1%
An experiment by Global Rich List.
Compare your wealth and see that you belong to the 1%
An experiment by Global Rich List.
Do not touch - an Internet experiment celebrating the nearing end of computer cursor
Do not touch - an Internet experiment celebrating the nearing end of computer cursor
Produced by Moniker studio in Amsterdam, Do Not Touch is an ode to the mouse pointer which is doomed to disappear in favour of more modern point devices such as… fingers.
You are asked to move your pointer around while you listen and watch Light Light’s music video; and you are not alone, as you shall see.
Do not touch - an Internet experiment celebrating the nearing end of computer cursor
Produced by Moniker studio in Amsterdam, Do Not Touch is an ode to the mouse pointer which is doomed to disappear in favour of more modern point devices such as… fingers.
You are asked to move your pointer around while you listen and watch Light Light’s music video; and you are not alone, as you shall see.
Cognitive Overhead — “how many logical connections or jumps your brain has to make in order to understand or contextualize the thing you’re looking at.” Minimizing cognitive overhead is imperative when designing for the mass market. Why? Because most people haven’t developed the pattern matching machinery in their brains to quickly convert what they see in your product (app design, messaging, what they heard from friends, etc.) into meaning and purpose. We, the product builders, take our ability to cut through cognitive overhead for granted; our mental circuits for our products’ patterns are well practiced.
Thought-provoking ideas from David Lieb, the co-founder and CEO of Bump. Your product is complicated to others because it is so simple in your eyes. Your grandma should be able to use it (in an ideal world, indeed).
Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Isn’t As Simple As You Think
Cognitive Overhead — “how many logical connections or jumps your brain has to make in order to understand or contextualize the thing you’re looking at.” Minimizing cognitive overhead is imperative when designing for the mass market. Why? Because most people haven’t developed the pattern matching machinery in their brains to quickly convert what they see in your product (app design, messaging, what they heard from friends, etc.) into meaning and purpose. We, the product builders, take our ability to cut through cognitive overhead for granted; our mental circuits for our products’ patterns are well practiced.
Thought-provoking ideas from David Lieb, the co-founder and CEO of Bump. Your product is complicated to others because it is so simple in your eyes. Your grandma should be able to use it (in an ideal world, indeed).
Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Isn’t As Simple As You Think
To be conservative, If we give CNN a very high market penetration, like 50%, then we can estimate that the entire Google Reader ecosystem is roughly 50 million users. This is backed up by the claim that in 2010 Google reader had, “tens of millions of monthly active users.” Second, I estimate that Reader is 80% of the total market for this type of RSS reader, which would put the total market at roughly 65 million users.
So about 65 million people are reading the news using RSS feed readers?
That’s a lot. And a good news.
To be conservative, If we give CNN a very high market penetration, like 50%, then we can estimate that the entire Google Reader ecosystem is roughly 50 million users. This is backed up by the claim that in 2010 Google reader had, “tens of millions of monthly active users.” Second, I estimate that Reader is 80% of the total market for this type of RSS reader, which would put the total market at roughly 65 million users.
So about 65 million people are reading the news using RSS feed readers?
That’s a lot. And a good news.
Why we stand where we do in elevators
Why we stand where we do in elevators
“More senior men in particular seemed to direct themselves towards the back of the elevator cabins,” she writes in a blog for Ethnography Matters. “In front of them were younger men, and in front of them were women of all ages.”
There was also a difference in where people directed their gaze mid-ride: “Men watched the monitors, looked in the side mirrors (in one building) to see themselves, and in the door mirrors (of the other building) to also watch others. Women would watch the monitors and avoid eye contact with other users (unless in conversation) and the mirrors.”
In other words, men would check everyone else (and themselves) out during their elevator ride. Women, on the other hand, would only look in the mirrors when they were with other women.
Surely this can’t be the natural way we organise ourselves in elevators. The experiment was conducted in the tallest office buildings of Adelaide in Australia so power relations and hierarchies must come in to play.
Why we stand where we do in elevators
“More senior men in particular seemed to direct themselves towards the back of the elevator cabins,” she writes in a blog for Ethnography Matters. “In front of them were younger men, and in front of them were women of all ages.”
There was also a difference in where people directed their gaze mid-ride: “Men watched the monitors, looked in the side mirrors (in one building) to see themselves, and in the door mirrors (of the other building) to also watch others. Women would watch the monitors and avoid eye contact with other users (unless in conversation) and the mirrors.”
In other words, men would check everyone else (and themselves) out during their elevator ride. Women, on the other hand, would only look in the mirrors when they were with other women.
Surely this can’t be the natural way we organise ourselves in elevators. The experiment was conducted in the tallest office buildings of Adelaide in Australia so power relations and hierarchies must come in to play.