Letters Remain

  • Environmental Assumptions

    Big business is environmentally destructive: a widespread and almost unquestioned assumption. A false assumption, according to Jared Diamond, noting that profits often arise from green initiatives and environmental concern is of inherent importance to many large corporations.

    The story is told through the lens of Wal-Mart’s transport and packaging initiatives, Coca-Cola’s concern “with problems of water scarcity, energy, climate change and agriculture” and Chevron’s policy of rigourous environmental protection (of which anyone who has read Diamond’s Collapse, will be acutely aware):

    The embrace of environmental concerns by chief executives has accelerated recently for several reasons. Lower consumption of environmental resources saves money in the short run. Maintaining sustainable resource levels and not polluting saves money in the long run. And a clean image — one attained by, say, avoiding oil spills and other environmental disasters — reduces criticism from employees, consumers and government.

    It’s not just big business we make assumptions about: as Tim Harford points out after reading Prashant Vaze’s The Economical Environmentalist, some typical environmental decisions are sometimes based on incorrect assumptions:

    Environmentalists have been slow to realise that the fashionable eco-lifestyle is riddled with contradictions. The one that particularly exasperates me is the “food miles” obsession, whereby we eschew tomatoes from Spain and roses flown in from Kenya, in favour of local products grown in a heated greenhouse with a far greater carbon footprint. Other less-than-obvious truths are: that pork and chicken have substantially lower carbon footprints than beef and lamb (yes, even organic beef and lamb); that milk and cheese also have a substantial footprint; that dishwashers are typically more efficient than washing dishes by hand; and that eco-friendly washing powders may be distinctly eco-unfriendly because they tend to tempt people to use hotter washes.

    Jared Diamond piece via Marginal Revolution

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Marketing and Spreading Online

    Bud Caddell, strategist at Undercurrent, talks with the author of Chief Culture Officer, Grant McCracken, on Bud’s experience of marketing online and how it really should be done–by the small and large companies. This on making something ‘spreadable’:

    Trying to design a program that reaches mass first, isn’t going to spread at all. It’s not remarkable, there’s nothing about it that’s going to appeal to anyone at a level that they’re used to now identifying to. So instead, you should go and identify these [incredibly specific] groups and suss out how you can work together with these different groups to create something that’s spreadable. […] It’s really about finding a group of people who, when you can provide the right kind of value to them, your objectives or your purpose aligns.

    via @mikarauz

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Advice from Economists

    Jim Rogers—co-founder of the Quantum Fund (with George Soros), economic commentator, guest professor of finance at Columbia University and author of A Gift to My Children—provided a short interview with the FT discussing his thoughts on making that first million, on travelling, and some general advice to the next generation.

    What is the secret of your success?

    As I was not smarter than most people, I was willing to work harder than most. I was prepared to examine conventional wisdom.

    • Do not underestimate the value of due diligence.
    • For [the next] generation, Mandarin and English will be the most important languages.
    • If you give children too much, you will ruin them. I want my children to be well-educated and experience the workplace. [On not passing much financial wealth to his children.]
    • Invest only in things you know something about. […] Stick to what [you] know and buy an investment in that area. That is how you get rich. You don’t get rich investing in things you know nothing about.

    Further advice, this from Tyler Cowen:

    I told [my stepdaughter] to take calculus and statistics; even if she hates them she’ll know what side of that divide she stands on.  I am encouraging of learning languages, driving modest Japanese cars, and ordering the most unappealing-sounding dish on the menu of a good restaurant.  On investing it’s buy and hold all the way.  Use TimeOut guides when you travel and when you are eating in third world countries avoid walls.  I’m not a big fan of debt; debt is worth it only if you’re earnings-obsessed and I don’t recommend that for most people.  Don’t expect to be too happy, that is counterproductive.  I’ve mentioned that future job descriptions may be quite fluid and unpredictable from today’s vantage point.  Being “good with people,” combined with smarts and a focus on execution, will never wear out.

    As with all articles that dole out advice, there’s some gold in the comments.

    Jim Rogers interview via Tim Coldwell

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Terrorism and Our Responses

    Shortly after the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 incident, Bruce Schneier provided links to a number of articles that published interviews, quotes or essays from him. As expected, Schneier calmly reiterates his old advice that is as valid now as it was pre-9/11.

    The one not to miss: Is aviation security mostly for show?

    The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. […]

    Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, […] the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them. […]

    We’d do much better by leveraging the inherent strengths of our modern democracies and the natural advantages we have over the terrorists: our adaptability and survivability, our international network of laws and law enforcement, and the freedoms and liberties that make our society so enviable.

    In an interview with The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg Schneier was asked if we are “moving toward the Israelification” of airport security. Unsure what Israelification referred to, a quick search led to an excellent article discussing how airport security works in Israel:

    Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don’t take s— from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.

    That, in a nutshell is “Israelification” – a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.

    Interestingly, a large proportion of Israel’s airport security is rooted in behavioural profiling: the meta-data.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Web Design Research Results

    Some of the more enlightening/worthwhile results from a number of studies on design and usability conducted by Smashing Magazine, found via their otherwise-ordinary 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines article:

    General design decisions taken by the top 50 blogs (part two):

    • 92% use a fixed width layout with 56% varying the width between 951 and 1000px.
    • For body text, 90% use Verdana, Lucida Grande, Arial or Georgia with 78% using a font size between 12 and 14px.
    • Headlines are typically Arial or Georgia (52%), with a font size between 17 and 25px.
    • The front page presents excerpts of 10-20 posts in 62% of cases.
    • 50% offer links to related and/or popular posts.
    • 90% of footers contain copyright information, 40% contain links to About pages and 30% to contact information.
    • 76% provide ad-free articles.
    • 54% provide social icons under the post.
    • 66% display RSS buttons above the main layout area, while a similar percentage use the ‘standard’ RSS icon (as opposed to a text link) and employ only one RSS feed.
    • Only 5 blogs use tag clouds (10%) and 11 (22%) use pagination.
    • Nobody cares about standards (only 2 conform).

    A study of the typography used on the top 50 blogs touched on some of the above and then went into more detail:

    • Sans-serif fonts are more popular for both headlines and body copy (although not by a large margin).
    • Headlines: Georgia, Arial or Helvetica between 18 and 29 pixels.
    • Body copy: Georgia, Arial, Verdana or Lucida Grande between 12 and 14 pixels.
    • Header font size ÷ Body copy font size = 1.96.
    • Line height (pixels) ÷ body copy font size (pixels) = 1.48.
    • Line length (pixels) ÷ line height (pixels) = 27.8.
    • Space between paragraphs (pixels) ÷ line height (pixels) = 0.754.
    • Optimal number of characters per line: between 55–75 (although 75–85 is more popular).
    • Body text is left-aligned, image replacement is rarely used and links are either underlined or highlighted with bold or color.

    100 unspecified sites were used for this analysis of web form structure and design (part two):

    • 93% use single-page sign-up forms.
    • 41% of sites attract visitors by explaining the benefits of registration.
    • Vertically arranged fields are preferred to horizontally arranged fields (86%).
    • 82% of sites don’t ask for e-mail confirmation, although 72% required password confirmation.
    • Only 45% of sites used the thank-you message to motivate users to proceed with exploring the services of the site.
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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Simple Rules for Better Typography

    Some simple rules to follow for improved typography (web or print), from Fred Design:

    • Don’t use too many typefaces (not more than 3).
    • Pay close attention to the hierarchy.
    • No more than 4 font sizes, preferably 3.
    • 8-10pt for body copy (definitely not above 12pt).
    • Use simple, legible typefaces.
    • Keep leading in mind (a little above the font size, slightly below the auto setting, no overlapping).
    • Keep kerning in mind (no overlapping).
    • Emphasise subtly (bold, italic, underlined or a darker shade).
    • No caps in body text.
    • Always align to a baseline.
    • Flush left, ragged right (keep text left aligned, not justified).
    • Between 6 and 12 words per line (as a general, flexible rule).
    • Hanging punctuation marks and bullets, not indented.
    • Experimental: use Fibonacci numbers for point sizes.

    Similar and worthwhile: Mark Boulton’s Five simple steps to better typography.

    Don’t forget these ebooks, either!

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • On Hiring Talent (Not Just Programmers)

    You could hire through open source like GitHub (“we hire ‘The Girl or Guy Who Wrote X,’ where X is an awesome project we all use or admire”) or use a check-list to recognise competency (passion, self-teaching, a love of learning, intelligence, hidden experience and knowledge of a variety of technologies) and no doubt find some fine programmers.

    You could also take a similar approach to hiring marketers, writers, designers and those in many other industries, too. While this may guarantee competence, it does not guarantee success (business and/or interpersonal).

    Combine the above with the approach Steve Jobs takes to interviewing (via Ben Casnocha) and you may be on to something (emphasis mine):

    When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else. […]

    How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? Why are they here? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.

    Take heed of how Aaron Swartz hires programmers using three questions (via kottke) and you’re likely to end up with the best candidate. Those three questions:

    • Can they get stuff done?
    • Are they smart?
    • Can you work with them?

    And to answer those questions:

    • To find out if they can get stuff done, I just ask what they’ve done. If someone can actually get stuff done they should have done so by now.
    • To find out whether someone’s smart, I just have a casual conversation with them. […] Under no circumstances do I ask them any standard “interview questions”.
      • First, do they know stuff? Ask them what they’ve been thinking about and probe them about it. Do they seem to understand it in detail? Can they explain it clearly? […] Do they know stuff about the subject that you don’t?
      • Second, are they curious? Do they reciprocate by asking questions about you? Are they genuinely interested or just being polite? Do they ask follow-up questions about what you’re saying? Do their questions make you think?
      • Third, do they learn? At some point in the conversation, you’ll probably be explaining something to them. Do they actually understand it or do they just nod and smile?
    • I figure out whether I can work with someone just by hanging out with them for a bit. […] The point is just to see whether they get on your nerves.
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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Psychological Pricing and Other Shopping Persuasion Techniques

    The endowment effect, sex in advertising and pricing anchors: all bits of ‘shopping psychology’ we’ve heard before.

    Ryan Sager looks at these shopping persuasion techniques we should be aware of, adding a few small pieces of information that may be novel:

    • Endowment effect: We place a higher value on items we own, and just by simply trialling goods (trying on clothes, testing software, cars, etc.) we start to feel ownership.
    • Ownership imagery: Feelings of ownership (see above) can be induced by thought alone.
    • Romantic priming: We (men, not women) increase spending on items of conspicuous consumption when romantically primed (i.e. induced to think about sex, men purchase items as a signalling behaviour).
    • The ninety-nine pence/cent effect (psychological pricing):

    A recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that when pens were priced at $1.99 and $4.00, only 18% of the participants chose the higher-priced pen; but when the pens were priced at $2.00 and $3.99, 44% of the participants selected the higher-priced pen.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Ways of Reading, Writing, Learning

    A Working Library’s Ways of Reading could be called the nine rules of reading, writing, and learning.

    My favourite three:

    Always read with a pen in hand. The pen should be used both to mark the text you want to remember and to write from where the text leaves you. Think of the text as the starting point for your own words.

    Reading and writing are not discrete activities; they occur on a continuum, with reading at one end, writing at the other. The best readers spend their time somewhere in between.

    A good reader reads attentively, not only listening to what the writer says, but also to how she says it. This is how a reader learns to write.

    via robertogreco

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • The Statistics of A/B Testing

    Whether or not you believe this to be (as Joel Spolsky does) the “best post […] about A/B testing, ever”, it definitely is one of the easiest to understand and one of the few posts on split testing that is statistically sound (i.e. useful).

    Is [a given A/B test] conclusive? Has [variant] A won? Or should you let the test run longer? Or should you try completely different text?

    The answer matters. If you wait too long between tests, you’re wasting time. If you don’t wait long enough for statistically conclusive results, you might think a variant is better and use that false assumption to create a new variant, and so forth, all on a wild goose chase! That’s not just a waste of time, it also prevents you from doing the correct thing, which is to come up with completely new text to test against.

    Normally a formal statistical treatment would be too difficult, but I’m here to rescue you with a statistically sound yet incredibly simple formula that will tell you whether or not your A/B test results really are indicating a difference:

    1. Define N as “the number of trials.”
    2. Define D as “half the difference between the ‘winner’ and the ‘loser’.”
    3. The test result is statistically significant if D2 is bigger than N.

    Update: Now even easier, thanks to the online split test calculator.

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    Lloyd Morgan