Letters Remain

Category: interesting

  • Choice Architecture of Organ Donation

    The supply of organs suitable for donation is vastly smaller than the demand. To try and increase the pool of potential donors a number of options have been tested: Redefining death so ‘living’ organs can be taken from donors who have died through brain death (via Link Banana), provide incentives for potential donors, or employ…

  • The Landscapes of Gadgets

    Stating that modern gizmos (in this example, the iPhone) are no longer just dependent on highly integrated and developed systems for their production, but now also depend upon “a vast array of infrastructures, data ecologies, and device networks” for their operation, Rob Holmes’ “mind-boggling update to I, Pencil“* looks at the landscapes of extraction, assembly…

  • Why Urban Legends Spread

    In a short profile of David and Barbara Mikkelson–proprietors of urban legend reference Snopes–the two discuss how they have seen their site grow and what they have observed about the subset of society that visit and contact their site. It’s an eminently quotable article of observations, questioning why urban legends spread the way they do.…

  • Friendship Differences by Gender

    This slowly absorbing article on the differences between male and female friendships seems to have been compiled with an observant eye… but then I am the same sex as the author. Researchers say women’s friendships are face to face: They talk, cry together, share secrets. Men’s friendships are side by side: We play golf. We…

  • Rules of a Gentleman

    I imagine Ryan Evans‘ The Rules of a Gentleman may, at one point, overlap slightly with the fantastic 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son (previously). I’m fine with that. I’m also fine with this one getting a book deal, too. No. 10: Personal notes should always be hand written. No. 26: Items that shouldn’t match =…

  • Underestimating Others’ Willingness to Help

    We vastly underestimate how likely people are to provide assistance when asked, in both social settings and when soliciting funds. That’s the verdict coming from research conducted by associate professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Frank Flynn. Flynn found that we underestimate how much others are willing to provide in…

  • The Checklist Advantage

    To ensure that extremely complex tasks–tasks too complex even for “super-specialists”–are performed effectively, accurately and with minimal mistakes, checklists are an invaluable tool, suggested Atul Gawande in a 2007 article in The New Yorker (and everywhere else since, it seems). Gawande illustrates (in an inordinate amount of detail) how seemingly unnecessary checklists can make huge…

  • (Another) Interview With a Somali Pirate

    The second I’ve posted. I haven’t read the story this interview was conducted for (an article on the economics of Somali piracy) but this full, ‘uncut’ interview between Scott Carney from Wired and a Somali pirate offers a glimpse at their strategy and reasoning. How do you pirates decide on what ransom to ask for?…

  • For Continuous Learning and Generalisation

    Stating that our “reality is out of date” and coining the term “mesofacts” for those pieces of knowledge that pass us by unawares, Samuel Arbesman shows why continuous learning and generalisation are advantageous behaviours–or at least that specialisation to the degree that it is currently encouraged is outdated. Slow-changing facts are what I term “mesofacts.” Mesofacts…

  • Bilingualism and Dementia

    I’ve noted previously how child bilingualism improves the “executive functions” and a recent study has corroborated these findings while also discovering how bilingualism can stave off dementia in old age: [Psychologist Ellen Bailystok] wanted to explore whether enhanced executive control actually has a protective effect in mental aging—specifically, whether bilingualism contributes to the “cognitive reserve” that comes…