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  • 2 min read

Is this article a joke? “When Truisms are true”

26GRAYMATTER- articleInline.jpg

I saw this article in the Sunday New York Times today which starts promising but then becomes a bit ridiculous and makes a mockery of serious research, in my humble opinion.

It starts with a claim that sounds plausible:

"Recent advances in understanding what psychologists call “embodied cognition” indicate a surprisingly direct link between mind and body. It turns out that people draw on their bodily experiences in constructing their social reality.

Studies show, for example, that someone holding a warm cup of coffee tends to perceive a stranger as having a "warmer"€ personality. Likewise when holding something heavy, people see things as more serious and important – more -€ œweighty" (fromWhen Truisms are True)

But then as they go into the studies they are doing to demonstrate some of their ideas. Just casually I think of many simpler explanations than the far out conclusions they seem to be coming to:

"For example, we asked 102 undergraduates at New York University to complete a task designed to measure innovative thinking. The task required them to generate a word (“tape,” for example) that related to each of three presented clue words (“measure,” “worm” and “video”). Some students were randomly assigned to do this while sitting inside a 125-cubic- foot box that we made of plastic pipe and cardboard. The rest got to sit and think outside (and next to) the box.

During the task we tracked the number of correct responses suggested by the students. We found that those thinking outside the box were significantly more creative: compared with those thinking inside the box, they came up with over 20 percent more creative solutions." (fromWhen Truisms are True)

and

"Then we asked them to think of original uses for the objects, either while walking along a fixed rectangular path indicated by duct tape on the floor (marking out an area of about 48 square feet) or by walking freely as they wished. The differences were striking: students who walked freely were better at generating creative uses for the objects — coming up with over 25 percent more original ideas. Such creativity was assessed in terms of fluency (the number of ideas generated), flexibility (the number of unique categories that described the generated ideas) and originality (as judged by independent raters)." (fromWhen Truisms are True)

Really? It was at this point that I looked back at the article's start to check if this was Humor or Satire.

  • 2 min read

Letting out my Comcast frustrations

"Dear Kelley

I've had a very bad two days with Comcast, and if you check my account you will see that I've used Comcast for over 20 years!! But I am now talking to Verizon.

Because I don't want to waste more time with you guys I will say this: I am glad to talk to someone serious who wants to know how you are going wrong. I don't want to talk to a trained support person who is trying to calm me down. I am very calm.

Here is a short list of issues:

  • the web site says that the link is for an email to Rick Germano. This is clearly not the case as I am talking to you. You treat your customers like they are dummies.
  • your voice mail menu is horrible and time wasting. it seems tike it tries all it can do to avoid me talking to a person. Why even have an 800 number?
  • it is impossible to call a local office (like the one in Sommerville MA) to ask if they have a certain thing in stock to save me a trip as the only phone number is your horrible 800 number
  • the cable box that you gave me after I had to drive in the snow to pick it up, was defective. I know that because the second one I drove to the store in the snow to pick up just worked.
  • You use your customers as quality assurance instead of making sure that you don't shrink wrap a boat anchor of a cable box that came from who knows where to hope it works for the next customer
  • t is impossible to find on your web site how much dvr is going to cost. I am forced to call (see complaint above)

Ok I could go on but am tired. I know you are trying to save money because competition is fierce but this is way too far for 2012.

Bye Bye. Pito Salas"

  • 1 min read

Clever iPhone app vs. the Transistor

This interesting, and I think, correct article, makes the argument that the word 'innovation' is being watered down and even getting cheapened. It says, about "innovation",

"Regrettably, we now use the term to describe almost anything. It can describe a smartphone app or a social media tool; or it can describe the transistor or the blueprint for a cellphone system. The differences are immense." (from Innovation and the Bell Labs Miracle)

and leads to this:

"The conflation of these different kinds of innovations seems to be leading us toward a belief that small groups of profit-seeking entrepreneurs turning out innovative consumer products are as effective as our innovative forebears.

History does not support this belief. The teams at Bell Labs that invented the laser, transistor and solar cell were not seeking profits. They were seeking understanding. Yet in the process they created not only new products but entirely new -- and lucrative -- industries." (from Innovation and the Bell Labs Miracle)

Excellent points and a useful distinction.

  • 1 min read

Family Values

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSQQK2Vuf9Q&w=560&h=315]

  • 1 min read

Amazing article about what’s going on in Syria

MarieColvin

In the Sunday Times (of London, I gather, but they don't feel the need to include that in their name) I saw this outstanding article about what's going on in Syria. (No I don't regularly read the Sunday Times, I got this through a link.

Here's a little from the article by Marie Colvin:

"Our house was hit by a rocket so 17 of us were staying in one room,” she recalls as Mimi, her three-year-old daughter, and Mohamed, her five-year-old son, cling to her abaya.

“We had had nothing but sugar and water for two days and my husband went to try to find food.” It was the last time she saw Maziad, 30, who had worked in a mobile phone repair shop. “He was torn to pieces by a mortar shell.”

For Noor, it was a double tragedy. Adnan, her 27-year-old brother, was killed at Maziad’s side. "(from The Sunday Times)

The sad postscript is that this article was Marie Colvin's last, as she was herself killed soon after in a bombing.

  • 1 min read

8 Hour Sleep is for the birds?

Do you believe that you require 8 hours of sleep to be rested and effective. Well, in this really interesting article in the BBC News it seems like that pattern might not really be the most natural. Some experiments conducted came up with some interesting findings:

In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.

"It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.

Though sleep scientists were impressed by the study, among the general public the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists. More recently, the theory that humans slept in two distinct chunks has resurfaced, but in the rather less likely field of history." (from The Myth of 8 hour sleep)

If you are intrigued, here's the whole article.

Though sleep scientists were impressed by the study, among the general public the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists.

More recently, the theory that humans slept in two distinct chunks has resurfaced, but in the rather less likely field of history.

  • 1 min read

What is Pinterest good for?

Funny thing, I like many people are trying to figure out what Pinterest is good for. Well I found a use.

From yesterday's post, you saw that I am searching for a new application icon for BlogBridge. In fact I listed a series of out/crowdsource design options. What I need to do now is to provide them with design guidance, a design brief.

So as you may imagine, I've been looking around the web for icons and logos which I like because one of the best ways to tell a designer what you are looking for is to show them the stuff you like.

See where this is going?

Voila, what better use for Pinterest can you think of?

Here's my Pinterest "BlogBridge Icon Inspiration" Board

I will try to set it up so you can add an idea or two if you have any contribution. Whoops, that might be dangerous. Shall we try?

  • 1 min read

Crowdsourcing a new BlogBridge icon

Well, it's been about 5 years with the same (lovely) BlogBridge application icon and as we are redesigning the web site and releasing a major new release of the product, we thought, hey, it's time to update the icon to something, ahem, a little more modern.

In case you forgot (or never knew),here's what the BlogBridge app icon looks like today:

Blogbridge

I guess, nice, but boring, yes?

So what I am looking for is a beautiful new, 3D rendered, and meaningful application icon. Something that will look really cool in my dock (but equally on a Windows or Linux desktop.)

So far I've considered using:

So far I am liking 99designs.com the best. But if you have suggestions, please send them to me!