Letters Remain

  • Northern Ireland’s Segregated Peace

    Twelve years after the signing of the Belfast ‘Good Friday’ Agreement signalled an end to the Troubles, Northern Ireland is in a state of ‘segregated peace’, says Kevin Cullen, describing the situation.

    Not only is there an official ethos of separate but equal, but an infrastructure underpinning it. There are three times as many so-called peace lines — elaborate walls separating working-class neighborhoods — than there were at the height of the Troubles, 88 of them at last count. […]

    With segregation the status quo, there is an enormous duplication of public services, such as schools, community centers, and health clinics. The Alliance Party […] estimates that duplication of public services costs more than $1 billion a year, this in a place the size of Connecticut with a population of less than 2 million.

    But it’s more than money that Northern Ireland is losing. It is losing the very kind of people that might change things. Some are voting with their feet, others simply not voting at all. Voting participation, which surged in the optimism following the Good Friday Agreement, has slumped. The brain drain, which saw educated young people head to England and everywhere else, slowed after everything looked possible in 1998. But it has picked up again, as a new generation that grew up without widespread violence concludes that peace is nice but not everything. So much creativity, energy, and productivity, lost across the Irish Sea.

    via Link Banana

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Evolutionary Theory of Fiction

    The age of “politically charged” analyses of literature has passed and the latest phase is that of analysing fiction through the lens of evolutionary psychology, looking at how the brain processes literature.

    Humans can comfortably keep track of three different mental states at a time, Ms. Zunshine said. For example, the proposition “Peter said that Paul believed that Mary liked chocolate” is not too hard to follow. Add a fourth level, though, and it’s suddenly more difficult. And experiments have shown that at the fifth level understanding drops off by 60 percent, Ms. Zunshine said. Modernist authors like Virginia Woolf are especially challenging because she asks readers to keep up with six different mental states, or what the scholars call levels of intentionality.

    It’s a short article, and left me wanting more. More will no doubt come when this field matures.

    via Arts and Letters Daily

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Writing and Preparing for a Speech (Tim Ferriss’ System)

    The Tim Ferris technique for preparing a speech. For those aware of the concept, you may spot a resemblance to the snowflake method (previously), as typically used for writing novels.

    There are also some non-structural tips in the article (i.e. “No one should misunderstand you. Everything you say should be clear”.)

    • Organise the speech using the “rule of thirds” (no content at this stage, tailor the timings to your desired speech length):
      • 2-minute introduction.
      • Three 10-minute segments.
      • 2-minute close.
    • Create the content for the three central segments. For each 10-minute segment:
      • Decide what the main takeaway or usable action is for the audience.
      • Explain this using the PEP or EPE format (E = Example or case study. P = Point, illustrating the concept, offering actionable next steps).
      • Use 2-3 of these per 10-minute segment.
    • Create the introduction:
      • Preferably start with a story.
      • Explain that you’ll introduce three concepts that will help the audience do “X”, where “X” is whatever the overarching theme of the presentation is.
    • Rehearse:
      • Rehearse the sections separately.
      • Time yourself.
      • After each rehearsal write down any one-liners or wording that you like.
      • Do not memorise the speech verbatim.
      • Do remember the starting and closing 2-3 sentences for each portion (introduction, the three central segments).
    • Create and rehearse the conclusion.
    • Rehearse the entire speech:
      • Rehearse until you recite the speech perfectly at least once.
      • Accept that you’ll forget at least 10% of your memorised lines.
      • Continue to review notes to ensure you are hitting the important points.
    • Sleep.

    So, the final speech will be structured like this:

    • Introduction
    • Segment 1
      • EPE/PEP
      • EPE/PEP
      • EPE/PEP
    • Segment 2
      • EPE/PEP
      • EPE/PEP
      • EPE/PEP
    • Segment 3
      • EPE/PEP
      • EPE/PEP
      • EPE/PEP
    • Conclusion
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    Lloyd Morgan

  • The Heritability of Happiness

    A study looks at how much of our happiness can be attributed to our genes?

    Neither socioeconomic status, educational attainment, family income, marital status, nor an indicant of religious commitment could account for more than about 3% of the variance in well-being (WB). From 44% to 52% of the variance in WB, however, is associated with genetic variation. Based on the retest of smaller samples of twins after intervals of 4, 5 and 10 years, we estimate that the heritability of the stable component of subjective well-being approaches 80%.

    This high percentage was quite surprising, seemingly not leaving much ‘space’ for the other determinants of happiness to make much difference.

    The study begins with:

    Are those people who go to work in suits happier and more fulfilled than those who go in overalls? Do people higher on the socioeconomic ladder enjoy life more than those lower down? Can money buy happiness? As a consequence of racism and relative poverty, are black Americans less contented on average than white Americans? Because men still hold the reins of power, are men happier than women? [This study] indicated that the answer to these questions, surprisingly, is “no”. [The] authors pointed out that people have a remarkable ability to adapt, both to bad fortune and to good, so that one’s life circumstances, unless they are very bad indeed, do not seem to have lasting effects on one’s mood.

    via @bakadesuyo

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • 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 go to football games. […]

    Studies show that in their late 20s and 30s, women have a harder time staying in touch with old friends. Those are the years when they’re busy starting careers and raising children, so they don’t have time to gather for reunions. Money is tighter, too. But around age 40, women start reconnecting. Before the 1990s, researchers assumed this was because they had more time for friendship in their 40s, as their children became self-sufficient. But now researchers consider this middle-aged focus on friendship to be a life stage; as women plan the next chapter of their lives, they turn to friends for guidance and empathy.

    Men, meanwhile, tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there’s often a falloff after that. Among the reasons: Their friendships are more apt to be hurt by geographical moves and differences in career trajectories. Recent studies, however, are now finding that men in their late 40s are turning to what Dr. Grief calls “rusted” friends—longtime pals they knew when they were younger. The Internet is making it easier for them to make contact with one another.

    That’s not to say men don’t have these intimate, sharing relationships:

    But again, it’s a mistake to judge men’s interactions by assuming we need to be like women. Research shows that men often open up about emotional issues to wives, mothers, sisters and platonic female friends. That’s partly because they assume male friends will be of little help. It may also be due to fears of seeming effeminate or gay. But it’s also an indication that men compartmentalize their needs; they’d rather turn to male friends to momentarily escape from their problems. The new buzzword is “bromance.”

    via @vaughanbell

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • The Economically-(Im)Perfect World of Online Games

    Kristian Segerstrale–owner of online games company Playfish (acquired by Electronic Arts for $400m in November 2009)–discusses why online game environments are exciting places for economics research (and specifically: “how social factors influence economic decision making”):

    When economists try to model behavior in the real world, they’re always dealing with imperfect information. “The data is always limited, and once you get hold of it there are tons of reasons to mistrust it,” Segerstrale says. In virtual worlds, on the other hand, “the data set is perfect. You know every data point with absolute certainty. In social networks you even know who the people are. You can slice and dice by gender, by age, by anything.”

    Instead of dealing only with historical data, in virtual worlds “you have the power to experiment in real time,” Segerstrale says. What happens to demand if you add a 5 percent tax to a product? What if you apply a 5 percent tax to one half of a group and a 7 percent tax to the other half? “You can conduct any experiment you want,” he says. “You might discover that women over 35 have a higher tolerance to a tax than males aged 15 to 20—stuff that’s just not possible to discover in the real world.”

    Of course, there’s a fairly obvious caveat:

    One possible flaw in this economic model is that the kind of people who spend hours online taking care of imaginary pets may not be representative of the rest of the population. The data might be “perfect” and “complete,” but the world from which it’s gathered is anything but that.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • 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 = Watch, belt, slacks, socks and shoes.

    No 28: Opening the door for a lady is not optional, and will never go out of style. (Andy Rutledge)

    No. 33: Always provide correction in private and praise in public. (Scott Delinger)

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Questioning (Not Telling) Ourselves is the Best Call-to-Action

    Thinking about whether we will do a task or not (“Will I…?”) rather than focusing on actually performing the task (“I will….”) has been shown to increase both the probability of us eventually undertaking the task and how successfully we will perform it.

    The idea seems that “interrogative self-talk”, rather than declarative statements, leads to more internal motivation due to a greater feeling of autonomy.

    Voter turnout in an election increased to 86.7% in people who had been asked to make a prediction about whether they would vote, compared to 61.5% in those who were not asked the question.

    When a restaurant changed the receptionist’s script when taking a booking from ‘Please call if you have to cancel,’ to ‘Will you call if you have to cancel?’ the no-show rate dropped from 30% to 10%.

    Professor Richard Cialdini attributes this effect to our need to act in ways that are consistent with our previously established views of ourselves. Asking ourselves questions that draw attention to our motivations force us to define who we are and what is important to us. Having defined these things, we have to act in accordance with them or face cognitive dissonance.

    Those two anecdotes (voter turnout, restaurant cancellations) are taken from chapter 16 of Robert Cialdini’s Yes! (previously).

    Will you tweet about this study?

    via @cojadate

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Objective Photo Ratings Compared Across EXIF Data Categories

    Nikon D90 users who take photographs outside of the F2.8 to F5.6 aperture range and with a fast shutter speed are the best photographers on Flickr. If they also post-process their images with anything but the manufacturer-supplied software, and license their images with Creative Commons licenses, then they’re even better again.

    Using a variation of the Elo rating system to objectively rate the quality of photographs, these are the results from ELOgrade’s calculations looking at the quality of photographs compared across various EXIF data categories.

    Of course, they went and spoilt the fun:

    Please keep in mind that correlation does not imply causation as well as the sample methodology and size used by this report.

    But I did like this comment, on discovering the correlation between Creative Commons licensed photos and higher quality ratings:

    Maybe people who take the effort to make it easier to share their work do tend to take better photos.

    via Foomandoonian

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Self Affirmations Boost Self-Control

    I’ve written before on positive self-affirmations and how they are not of much use, but now it seems that if we are succumbing to temptation and we want to exercise self-control but are finding it difficult to do so, we should recite positive self-affirmations to help us resist.

    A novel experiment has now shown that positive self-affirmations can help us all by boosting our self-control when it declines.

    Self-control can be hard to maintain, as most of us know to our cost. One study has found that exercising self-control is such hard work, it measurably depletes our glucose levels. […]

    To find out [if self-affirmation could help us exercise self-control] participants were asked to carry out a task that required self-control: they had to write a story but without using the letters ‘a’ and ‘n’. Participants then wrote about their core values, e.g. their relationship with their family, their creativity or their aesthetic preferences, whatever they felt was important to them.

    Finally they were given a classic test of self-control: submerging their hand in a bucket of icy cold water. […]

    This group was compared with another that was allowed to use all the letters of the alphabet when writing their story, so didn’t have to exercise their self-control to the same degree. […]

    Participants who could use any letters managed to hold their hands underwater for almost 80 seconds, on average. However those who had written the stories without the ‘a’s and ‘n’s only managed 27 seconds. […]

    However in the group that had to write the tricky story, then self-affirmed their core values, self-control did recover. They managed to hold their hands underwater for an average of 61 seconds. So it seems that self-affirmation can refuel depleted self-control.

    Note that self-affirmation didn’t improve self-control for people who completed the easy-peasy story. In other words the self-affirmation trick only works if you’ve already taken a hit to your self-control.

    The article also notes that self-control has been linked to “all sorts of positive outcomes in life, like satisfying relationships and academic achievement” while the lack of self-control has been linked with “interpersonal conflict and underachievement”.

    via Mind Hacks

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    Lloyd Morgan