How can you tell whether you’re communicating with a computer or a human?
bsp; If you're communicating with someone via an online chat, how can you be sure it's a human on the other end and not a clever computer program? That's what the Turing test is all about. Every year an award ("Most Human Computer") is given out for the artifical intelligence program that is most effective at fooling judges into believing it's a person. What I found more interesting is that they also give out an award ("Most Human Human") to…
1 min read
When do vacations make you happier than new TV’s? When do they not?
ere's been a lot of discussion about experiences (like going on vacation) making us more happier than things (like buying a new TV.) Often, it's true: Asked which of the two purchases made them happier, fully 57% of respondents reported that they had derived greater happiness from their experiential purchase, while only 34% reported greater happiness from their material purchase. Why do experiences win? We quickly take material goods for granted. This happens more slowly with experiences. We anticipate and…
2 minutes
Why aren’t we more compassionate?
bsp; Being compassionate toward others increases happiness and self-esteem and reduces stress. Self-compassion (forgiving yourself for errors vs beating yourself up) results in: greater willpower and self-control. reduced procrastination. more creativity. Seems pretty good overall. So why aren't we all more compassionate? Compassion seems to be tied to being powerless. The poor are more compassionate. Thoughts of death increase compassion. Personal tragedy grants us compassion. Power, on the other hand, reduces empathy. Those with power don't need to rely on…
2 minutes
If you want to be an expert, what little thing is almost as important as 10,000 hours of practice?
bsp; Merely deciding you're committed for the long-term vs the short-term. Via The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How: When McPherson saw the graph, he was stunned. “I couldn't believe my eyes,” he said. Progress was determined not by any measurable aptitude or trait, but by a tiny, powerful idea the child had before even starting lessons. The differences were staggering. With the same amount of practice, the long-term-commitment group outperformed the short-term-commitment group by 400 percent.…
1 min read
Would eyewitness testimony be more reliable if criminals were sexy?
udy after study shows eyewitness testimony is terribly unreliable: Via Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average: Between 1989 and 2007, for instance, 201 prisoners in the United States were freed through the use of DNA evidence. Of these, 77 percent had been mistakenly identified by eyewitnesses. Why is that? Here's one interesting theory: we're much better at remembering attractive faces... “In every case,”…
2 minutes
Which old sayings are true and which are false?
bsp; "Men think about sex every seven seconds" Nope. More like an average of every 158 seconds. "Nice guys finish last" It depends. "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long" Probably. "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" Morning people are more proactive and happier. On the other hand, night owls are smarter. And male night owls do better with the ladies. "When you smile the whole world smiles with…
4 minutes
How much does natural talent control what you can achieve in life?
bsp; In ~95% of cases, it doesn't. Via Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: Benjamin Bloom, an eminent educational researcher, studied 120 outstanding achievers. They were concert pianists, sculptors, Olympic swimmers, world-class tennis players, mathematicians, and research neurologists. Most were not that remarkable as children and didn’t show clear talent before their training began in earnest. Even by early adolescence, you usually couldn’t predict their future accomplishment from their current ability. Only their continued motivation and commitment, along with their…
1 min read
Do orphans rule the world?
e list of accomplished people who have lost a parent at a young age is startling and statistically uncanny. Via The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How: In the 1970s, a clinical psychologist from Long Island named Martin Eisenstadt tracked the parental histories of every person who was eminent enough to have earned a half-page-long entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica— a roster of 573 subjects, spanning Homer to John F. Kennedy, a rich mix of writers, scientists,…
2 minutes
