Imagine the trajectory of innovation without key advances like the wheel, horses for carrying loads and people, metal for tools, and writing—how would that go?
Well, actually we know, writes @ash_stuart_—it’s the story of the Americas:
https://ashstuart.substack.com/p/tecc38-cities-in-the-skies-stepping-up-rising-high
HT @docgrawitch
Om te vermijden dat beslissingen ongemerkt en ongewenst permanent worden, bepaal je wanneer ze niet langer nodig zijn, of herzien moeten worden.
Maar die exitcondities worden vaak verwaarloosd.
ICYMI, mijn @apache_be stukje, De exits die niemand plant:
Research by Müller et al suggests active noise-cancelling headphones have no significant effect on cognitive performance while working in an open plan office, and subjects do not report increased ability to concentrate:
“Before you think, ‘That baby is cute,’ your brain has already decided, ‘Protect this creature.’”
@Lsun5 explains how, and why, the irresistible cuteness of baby organisms is one of evolution’s most effective survival adaptations:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lies-and-deception/202602/why-we-think-babies-are-so-cute
Among the more obscure, but no less fascinating, work of Alan Turing is his demonstration how patterns—stripes, spots, diamonds, chevrons, hexagons and even mazelike designs—emerge in animals’ appearance:
What sticks but is not sticky?
A gecko—with adhesive powers that only recently have been approximated in the lab.
No suction, no glue—subatomic van der Waals forces allow it swiftly walk on nearly any surface, at any angle.
Check out this short video:
https://aeon.co/videos/the-key-to-geckos-unrivalled-climbing-skills-isnt-sticky-feet-its-subatomic
Researchers have identified the attributes of highly effective liars—18 of them.
Good to know in any case:
https://open.substack.com/pub/beringinmind/p/18-attributes-of-highly-effective
Adam Smith is widely regarded as an apostle of the Market. But he “was obsessed with […] the corruption of commercial society by concentrated privilege.”
What might the father of economics make of today’s crony capitalism?
This podcast explores:
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/capitalisnt-adam-smith-age-epstein-class
A 2-week experiment with freshman students suggests the effect on loneliness of chatting with a trained chatbot is no better than that of the control (journalling about their feelings).
Only chatting with a human partner reduced feelings of loneliness:
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/chatbot-vs-random-human-which-better-tackling-loneliness
When people learn new information, they tend to judge its reliability.
Research by @ThomasGraeber et al suggests this judgment does not to come to mind when people communicate the information to others, and is not passed on:
https://ideas.repec.org/p/zur/econwp/489.html
HT @mbialek82
