Letters Remain

  • Steve Jobs’ View on the Web and Creativity (1996)

    In 1996, while he was still the CEO of NeXT, Steve Jobs was interviewed by Wired writer Gary Wolf. The result was a sometimes quaint, occasionally prophetic and often pessimistic exchange.

    In this far-reaching (and somewhat lengthy) discussion with Steve Jobs, the two discuss the forthcoming ubiquity of “the web dial tone”, how technology doesn’t change the world and this on the true meaning of design and creativity:

    Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.

    Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

    Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

    via @tcarmody

    Tags:
     / / / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • Hypertext Comprehension and Delinkification

    Deciding whether to click on links while reading material in hypertext form gives rise to an additional cognitive load and additional distractions, goes a theory championed by Steve Gillmor and Nicholas Carr.

    In certain circumstances this is an argument for the “delinkification” of text, they suggest, as this will hopefully bring about increased comprehension.

    While I don’t totally agree, I find this analogy rather neat:

    The link is, in a way, a technologically advanced form of a footnote. It’s also, distraction-wise, a more violent form of a footnote. Where a footnote gives your brain a gentle nudge, the link gives it a yank. What’s good about a link – its propulsive force – is also what’s bad about it.

    via @anibalmastobiza

    Primary link: Nicholas Carr arguing for delinkification.
    Support link: Steve Gillmor’s Wikipedia entry.
    Support link: Nicholas Carr’s Wikipedia entry.
    By means of: Anibal Astobiza’s tweet.

    Tags:
     / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • Blood Sugar and the Depletion of Self-Control

    Self-control is a finite resource, goes the ego depletion theory, and through various means can be “used-up”. What, exactly, depletes and builds this resource isn’t fully known but a number of studies have shown some intriguing correlations with blood glucose level (explaining, possibly, the cookie self-control study).

    The abstract of a study by Roy Baumeister summarises the findings nicely, showing clearly the possible importance of keeping a moderate blood sugar in order to maintain self-control:

    Past research indicates that self-control relies on some sort of limited energy source. This review suggests that blood glucose is one important part of the energy source of self-control. Acts of self-control deplete relatively large amounts of glucose. Self-control failures are more likely when glucose is low or cannot be mobilized effectively to the brain (i.e., when insulin is low or insensitive). Restoring glucose to a sufficient level typically improves self-control. Numerous self-control behaviors fit this pattern, including controlling attention, regulating emotions, quitting smoking, coping with stress, resisting impulsivity, and refraining from criminal and aggressive behavior. Alcohol reduces glucose throughout the brain and body and likewise impairs many forms of self-control. Furthermore, self-control failure is most likely during times of the day when glucose is used least effectively. Self-control thus appears highly susceptible to glucose. Self-control benefits numerous social and interpersonal processes. Glucose might therefore be related to a broad range of social behavior.

    via Hacker News

    Tags:
     / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • On Being Wrong: Estimating Our Beliefs

    Following the forced retirement of Helen Thomas following her controversial comments on Israel and Palestine, Felix Salmon discusses how being wrong–and more importantly, the willingness to be wrong–is an admirable trait that should be applauded.

    In discussing this, Salmon points to a conversation between Tyler Cowen and Wil Wilkinson, where Cowen proposes:

    Take whatever your political beliefs happen to be. Obviously the view you hold you think is most likely to be true, but I think you should give that something like 60-40, whereas in reality most people will give it 95 to 5 or 99 to 1 in terms of probability that it is correct. Or if you ask people what is the chance this view of yours is wrong, very few people are willing to assign it any number at all. Or if you ask people who believe in God or are atheists, what’s the chance you’re wrong – I’ve asked atheists what’s the chance you’re wrong and they’ll say something like a trillion to one, and that to me is absurd, that even if you think all of the strongest arguments for atheism are correct, your estimate that atheism is in fact the correct point of view shouldn’t be that high, maybe you know 90-10 or 95 to 5, at most.

    Salmon continues:

    I try hard to believe […] that many if not most of my opinions are wrong (although of course I have no idea which they are), and that many of the most interesting and useful things I write come out of my being wrong rather than being right. This is not, as Wilkinson noted to Cowen, an easy intellectual stance to hold: he calls it “a weird violation of the actual computational constraints of the human mind”.

    via The Browser

    Tags:
     / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • Ira Glass on Being Wrong and Manufacturing Inspiration

    Discussing how many great stories “hinge on people being wrong”, Kathryn Schulz interviews This American Life host Ira Glass on the benefits of being wrong.

    I feel like being wrong is really important to doing decent work. To do any kind of creative work well, you have to run at stuff knowing that it’s usually going to fail. You have to take that into account and you have to make peace with it. […] In my experience, most stuff that you start is mediocre for a really long time before it actually gets good. And you can’t tell if it’s going to be good until you’re really late in the process. So the only thing you can do is have faith that if you do enough stuff, something will turn out great and really surprise you. […]

    I had this experience a couple of years ago where I got to sit in on the editorial meeting at the Onion. Every Monday they have to come up with like 17 or 18 headlines, and to do that, they generate 600 headlines per week. I feel like that’s why it’s good: because they are willing to be wrong 583 times to be right 17. […]

    If you do creative work, there’s a sense that inspiration is this fairy dust that gets dropped on you, when in fact you can just manufacture inspiration through sheer brute force. You can simply produce enough material that the thing will arrive that seems inspired.

    This fantastically comprehensive interview is one of the best I’ve read in a while and is part of a series of interviews on the subject of ‘wrongness’ following the publication of Schulz’s book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.

    Previous interviewees include Anthony Bourdain, Joe Posnanski, Diane Ravitch and Alan Dershowitz (part two).

    via Intelligent Life

    Tags:
     / / / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • Using Anchoring for Personal Appraisals

    I believe the anchoring effect to be one of the most intriguing psychological phenomena, mainly due to its impact, ease of observation and ease of use. I’ve written much about anchoring before and find it hard to resist new studies on the topic.

    One recent study shows that even irrelevant anchors can be used to preferentially anchor personal performance judgements:

    Three studies were conducted investigating the effects of irrelevant anchors on performance judgments. Both a lab and field study demonstrated that an alternative anchoring manipulation that did not involve an explicit comparative question had effects on performance judgments similar to a traditional anchoring manipulation. The final study examined whether the anchoring effects were more likely when the anchor was highly applicable to the final judgment. The results indicated that both highly applicable and low applicable anchors produced an anchoring effect, but the highly applicable anchors had a larger effect on performance judgments.

    via Barking Up the Wrong Tree

    Tags:
     /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • Essential Startup Essays

    Om Malik presents what he believes are the ten essential startup essays of 2009:

    1. Paul Graham: What Startups Are Really Like
    2. Sean Ellis: Milestones to Startup Success
    3. Eric Ries: Myth: Entrepreneurship Will Make You Rich
    4. Venture Hacks: What Is the Minimum Viable Product?
    5. Mike Speiser: The Power of Continuous Improvement
    6. Mike Speiser: Getting Comfortable With People Who Make You Uncomfortable
    7. Tony Wright: The Funnel Principle: Software & Making Money
    8. Andrew Chen: Does Every Startup Need a Steve Jobs?
    9. Josh Porter: Designing for Social Traction
    10. David Skok: Startup Killer: The Cost of Customer Acquisition

    I’ve not read them all, but the ones I have are excellent and definitely worth your time. I’ll be getting to the remainders shortly.

    Tags:
     / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • The Keynote MBA

    Truth is, the great value in most MBA and JD programs can be boiled down to 5 to 10 talks, presentations, classes and conversations that changed the way you experienced the world.

    Following up on this comment, Jonathan Fields presents The Seven Keynote MBA: seven keynote speeches, from a diverse group of people, that together Fields believes will provide you as much real-world advice as an MBA.

    The talks (videos, length in parentheses):

    1. Guy Kawasaki, TiECon 2006: The Art of the Start (39:46)
    2. Malcolm Gladwell, TED 2004: What We Can Learn From Spaghetti Sauce (18:16)
    3. Gary Vaynerchuck, Web 2.0 Expo NY: Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape (15:27)
    4. Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff (21:16)
    5. Jimmy Valvano, 1993 ESPY Awards: Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award acceptance speech (9:59) (transcript)
    6. Seth Godin, TED 2009: The Tribes We Lead (17:24)
    7. Tony Hsieh, Web 2.0 Summit 08: Building a Brand that Matters (16:46)

    via @evbogue

    Tags:
     / / / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • The Ideas of Frank Chimero

    Designer Frank Chimero presents his ‘Ideas’: his manifesto of sorts principles on creativity, motivation and innovation. Chimero briefly covers seven topics, entitled:

    • Why is Greater Than How
    • Not More. Instead, Better.
    • Surprise + Clarity = Delight
    • Sincire, Authentic & Honest
    • No Silver Bullets, No Secrets
    • Quality + Sincerity = Enthusiasm
    • Everything is Something or Other

    I’m particularly fond of the final two topics and this, from Why is Greater Than How:

    This complex world has made us over-emphasize How-based thinking and education. Once the tools are understood, understanding why to do certain things becomes more valuable than how to do them. How is recipes, and learning a craft is more than following instructions.

    How is important for new practitioners focused on avoiding mistakes. Why is for those who wish to push, are not risk-averse and seek to improve. How is coulda, Why is shoulda. How is finishing tasks, Why is fulfilling objectives. How usually results in more. Why usually results in better.

    via Link Banana

    Tags:
     / / / / / / /

    Lloyd Morgan

  • Motivation and the Cognitive Surplus

    This short discussion between Clay Shirky and Daniel Pink on cognitive surplus and motivation is full of little insights and allusions to interesting pieces of research.

    This, from Dan Pink, is a wonderful overview of the research into motivation, presented in typical Pink clarity:

    We have a biological drive. We eat when we’re hungry, drink when we’re thirsty, have sex to satisfy our carnal urges. We also have a second drive—we respond to rewards and punishments in our environment. But what we’ve forgotten—and what the science shows—is that we also have a third drive. We do things because they’re interesting, because they’re engaging, because they’re the right things to do, because they contribute to the world. The problem is that, especially in our organizations, we stop at that second drive. We think the only reason people do productive things is to snag a carrot or avoid a stick. But that’s just not true. Our third drive—our intrinsic motivation—can be even more powerful. […]

    Both of us cite research from University of Rochester psychologist Edward Deci showing that if you give people a contingent reward—as in “if you do this, then you’ll get that”—for something they find interesting, they can become less interested in the task. When Deci took people who enjoyed solving complicated puzzles for fun and began paying them if they did the puzzles, they no longer wanted to play with those puzzles during their free time. And the science is overwhelming that for creative, conceptual tasks, those if-then rewards rarely work and often do harm.

    via Link Banana

    Tags:
     / / / / /

    Lloyd Morgan