05 MAY 2018 by ideonexus
“Judge the value of what you have by what you had to gi...
The principle of an opportunity cost does not at first glance seem hard to understand. If you spend half an hour noodling around on Twitter, when you would otherwise have been reading a book, the lost book-reading time is the opportunity cost of the tweeting. If you decide to buy a fancy belt for £100 instead of a cheaper one for £20, the opportunity cost is the £80 shirt you could otherwise have bought. Everything has a cost: whatever you were going to do instead, but couldn’t.
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1 21 NOV 2017 by ideonexus
The Attention Arms Race
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google have produced amazing products that have benefited the world enormously. But these companies are also caught in a zero-sum race for our finite attention, which they need to make money. Constantly forced to outperform their competitors, they must use increasingly persuasive techniques to keep us glued. They point AI-driven news feeds, content, and notifications at our minds, continually learning how to hook us more deeply—from our own behavior.
Unfortuna... 1 
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notes20 JUN 2017 by ideonexus
Be Part of Where You Live
What concerns me is how our information networks have enabled us to become hyper-connected to geographically distant communities, while at the same time disconnected from our local ones. Virtual and long-distance relationships can enrich our lives in myriad ways, but I fear that our reliance on them has the potential to erode our physical communities and diminish our sense of place.
Wendell Berry once said that “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” Knowing wh...
1 28 DEC 2016 by ideonexus
President-Elect Trump has a Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio
What a president says is typically allotted a ton of news value, by default, and rightly so. But it has been assigned news value because it traditionally has had a very high signal-to-noise ratio. Presidential remarks are normally so considered, vetted, poll-tested, etc. They usually are a somewhat reliable guide to the policies a president will pursue, how they’ll pursue them, etc. But Trump isn’t like that. He throws a ton of stuff out there, on Twitter and off. The signal-to-noise rati... 1 notes
notes08 JUL 2016 by ideonexus
5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential Andrea Kuszewski
1. Seek Novelty
There is only one trait out of the "Big Five" from the Five Factor Model of personality (Acronym: OCEAN, or Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) that correlates with IQ, and it is the trait of Openness to new experience. People who rate high on Openness are constantly seeking new information, new activities to engage in, new things to learn—new experiences in general [2].
2. Challenge Yourself
Efficiency is not your friend when it co... 1 notes
notes25 FEB 2016 by ideonexus
Sequencing and Confluence to Inspire Technological Innova...
...innovation often occurs through sequencing—building on prior innovation. Recall that suitcases didn't used to have wheels. Then someone created a suitcase with two wheels. Now many suitcases have four wheels. What helpful improvement on the suitcase might come next?
I've pitched this question to students, who then produced amazing renditions of future suitcases, with elements like GPS tracking devices and built-in digital scales that check whether a suitcase is over a weight limit—or ...03 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Algorithm that Presents Opposing Viewpoints
Social networks allow people to connect with each other and have conversations on a wide variety of topics. However, users tend to connect with like-minded people and read agreeable information, a behavior that leads to group polarization. Motivated by this scenario, we study how to take advantage of partial homophily to suggest agreeable content to users authored by people with opposite views on sensitive issues. We introduce a paradigm to present a data portrait of users, in which their cha... 1 notes
notesIntended to break people out of their protective circles that generate extreme viewpoints, it presents opposing viewpoints that won't offend. Tricky.
22 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Game That Adds 7.5 Minutes to Your Life
Now, I could tell you what these four types of strength are, but I'd rather you experience them firsthand. I'd rather we all start building them up together right now. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a quick game together. This is where you earn those seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody read...Quick game that hits on four aspects of a healthy life. The speaker then suggests using those seven minutes on actions that will get you even more longevity.
26 SEP 2013 by ideonexus
Scientists Must Evangelize
My professors’ generation could respond to silliness like creationism with head-scratching bemusement. My students cannot afford that luxury. Instead they must become fierce champions of science in the marketplace of ideas.
During my undergraduate studies I was shocked at the low opinion some of my professors had of the astronomer Carl Sagan. For me his efforts to popularize science were an inspiration, but for them such “outreach” was a diversion. That view makes no sense today.
The ... 1 notes
notesIt is no longer acceptable for scientists to sit on the sidelines and immerse themselves in their work. They must engage the public.
02 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Reasoned Debate Online
I find that the biggest barrier to a reasoned debate is time rather than space, restrictive though it may be. Everything goes so fast that there is pressure to react sooner rather than later without allowing time for reflection. People then fall back on popular "truths" that can quickly be thrown out there. You can see this on Slashdot too where people pounce on articles to post the established group-think for a quick ' 5' (as well as the ubiquitous "frist psots".) Those who come relatively l...Is hampered by the need to get opinions out quickly before the discussion goes cold, reducing the propensity for reflection and thoughtful discourse.
