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.
The Price of Wine
While not quite as bad as diamonds, a lot of what goes into wine pricing seems to be largely bullshit as well:
Numerous experiments have shown that people will enjoy a table wine and a fine wine equally if they believe that they are both fine wine. Knowing that a wine is supposed to be good does literally make it taste better. The drinkers could be lying about enjoying the “bad” wine due to social pressure. However, an experiment involving a Stanford wine tasting group, a group of identical wines presented under fake price tags from $5 to $90, and a fMRI machine measuring activity in areas of the brain correlated with pleasure suggests otherwise. Drinking the same wine with a higher price tag did increase pleasure.
Also, this is a great quote:
As of 2003, Bronco processed 300,000 tons of grapes to make 20 million cases of wine, of which a quarter are Charles Shaw wines. Asked how he sells wine for the same price as a bottle of water, Franzia responded, ““They’re overcharging for the water. Don’t you get it?”
Fascinating.
The Price of Wine
blog.priceonomics.com/post/4661…
While not quite as bad as diamonds, a lot of what goes into wine pricing seems to be largely bullshit as well:
Numerous experiments have shown that people will enjoy a table wine and a fine wine equally if they believe that they are both fine wine. Knowing that a wine is supposed to be good does literally make it taste better. The drinkers could be lying about enjoying the “bad” wine due to social pressure. However, an experiment involving a Stanford wine tasting group, a group of identical wines presented under fake price tags from $5 to $90, and a fMRI machine measuring activity in areas of the brain correlated with pleasure suggests otherwise. Drinking the same wine with a higher price tag did increase pleasure.
Also, this is a great quote:
As of 2003, Bronco processed 300,000 tons of grapes to make 20 million cases of wine, of which a quarter are Charles Shaw wines. Asked how he sells wine for the same price as a bottle of water, Franzia responded, ““They’re overcharging for the water. Don’t you get it?”
Fascinating.
Even Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein called for “some redistribution” to create a stable and just society. But despite the growing consensus in Washington, Wall Street and academia, there hasn’t yet been concrete action and the situation is only taking a turn for the worse.
The US has the highest level of income gap of any of the advanced countries, with the top 1% capturing over 90% of the income growth.
Some politics to do for your Mr. Obama.
In the US everyone’s talking about income inequality, but nobody’s really doing anything about it
Even Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein called for “some redistribution” to create a stable and just society. But despite the growing consensus in Washington, Wall Street and academia, there hasn’t yet been concrete action and the situation is only taking a turn for the worse.
The US has the highest level of income gap of any of the advanced countries, with the top 1% capturing over 90% of the income growth.
Some politics to do for your Mr. Obama.
In the US everyone’s talking about income inequality, but nobody’s really doing anything about it
