Month: July 2010
-
Corrections and When They Work
A correction only serves its purpose (to correct our falsely-held beliefs) if we are predisposed to believe the correction itself. If we disagree with the correction, however, it instead acts to actually reinforce our incorrect beliefs (the “backfire effect”). That’s the conclusion drawn from research conducted by Brendan Nyhan, looking at how we avoid cognitive…
-
Mundane Decisions and Premature Deaths
Deaths in the United States resulting from “fairly mundane personal decisions” have risen from a rate of around 10% of all premature deaths a century ago to 44.5% today*. This shift suggests that by improving our decision-making abilities, we can dramatically reduce a main cause of premature death: ourselves. 44.5% of all premature deaths in…
-
Sedentary Lifestyle? Exercise Isn’t Helping
A somewhat sedentary lifestyle combined with regular exercise is turning us into what physiologists are calling ‘active couch potatoes’–and that exercise, no matter how vigourous, doesn’t appear to be counteracting the negative effects of that sedentary lifestyle. In rats, this lifestyle was found to produce “unhealthy cellular changes in their muscles” and increase insulin resistance…
-
Recognising Bad Advice and Expertise Failure
Why do we blindly follow experts when their advice is so often so wrong*? How can we differentiate between good advice and bad? These are just two of the questions David Freedman attempts to answer in Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us (a book that sounds like it could be a nice complement to Kathryn…
-
Recognising Drowning and Surviving Cold Water
Drowning does not look like drowning, and without flotation you will not live long enough to die from hypothermia if you fall into cold water. These are just two warnings from Mario Vittone–long-serving U.S. Navy and Coast Guard expert on maritime safety–writing in the maritime and offshore news site, gCaptain. In the first of two…
-
Sweetness and the Problem with Diet Sodas
The link between the sweetness of a food and its caloric content may be a trait that our bodies have evolved to recognise. By disrupting what could be a “fundamental homeostatic, physiological process” by using artificial sweeteners, we could be promoting obesity. That’s the conclusion Jonah Lehrer draws from a study that looks at how…
-
Market Segmentation and the PRIZM NE System
Market segmentation is a method of grouping people with similar characteristics, primarily for marketing purposes. A number of years ago, USA Today described in detail the information large consumer segmentation businesses track and use to group us. It’s an eye-opening read: The [consumer segmentation businesses] are pinpointing who lives where; what they’re most likely to…
-
A/B Testing Case Studies
Paras Chopra, founder of the fairly self-explanatory A/B testing company Visual Website Optimizer, provides an introduction to A/B testing that is as useful for newcomers as it is old-timers. In the article, Chopra provides a few dos and don’ts, an overview of some A/B testing tools, a fantastic list of resources and a collection of…
-
Educational Typography Ebooks
I’ve only recently taken a look at font retailer FontShop‘s collection of educational typography ebooks despite having the site bookmarked for months. It’s a wonderful (yet small) collection, currently consisting of these five books: Meet Your Type: A Field Guide to Typography The Typographer’s Glossary: Common Type Terminology Erik Spiekermann’s Typo Tips: Seven Rules for Better…
-
Selling Software on a Shoestring
From the early days of development through to the release and refinement of the final product (and further), Patrick McKenzie has been chronicling his journey as a one-man Micro ISV (Micro Independent Software Vendor). McKenzie has recently compiled a fantastic list of his best posts and this acts as a list of practical advice for…