Check out this cool infographic at the Visual Capitalist. Here is what is at stake, according to the website: "[T]hird parties can also take advantage of these biases to influence our thinking." These should be memorized and sent as reminders to all of your half-crazed friends on social media.
Finding from new study from the University of Chicago:, "Noise, Cognitive Function, and Worker Productivity":
As the developing world continues to become more urban and industrial, noise pollution is destined to spread even further. Between 2001 and 2015, the number of cars per person in India tripled, and this growth shows no signs of slowing (Government of India 2017). While this should be celebrated as a sign of progress, it will undoubtedly bring with it even more noise pollution. The results in this paper suggest this is a policy problem that warrants both further research and policy makers’ attention. This paper presents evidence that an increase of 10 dB inhibits cognitive function and that this results in a decrease in productivity of approximately 5%.
It's difficult to imagine that I, at this very moment, am wrong about anything. Yet we all know, in retrospect that we were often wrong about many things. But it never felt like it at the moment. At TED, Kathryn Schulz discusses the dangers and opportunities of looking more closely at these moments.
I think this is a problem. I think it's a problem for each of us as individuals, in our personal and professional lives, and I think it's a problem for all of us collectively as a culture. So what I want to do today is, first of all, talk about why we get stuck inside this feeling of being right. And second, why it's such a problem. And finally, I want to convince you that it is possible to step outside of that feeling and that if you can do so, it is the single greatest moral, intellectual and creative leap you can make.
So this is one reason, a structural reason, why we get stuck inside this feeling of rightness. I call this error blindness. Most of the time, we don't have any kind of internal cue to let us know that we're wrong about something, until it's too late . . .I watch very little TV, but Renée Youree Kennison recently convinced me to watch the pilot episode of “This is Us.” Wow. Incredible acting, writing, editing, lighting and music. We have been watching a few episodes per week and we are now almost at the end of Season 2 (out or four completed seasons).
I’m writing this post wondering how many lives might have been saved due to the most recent episode we watched. It involved a horrifically vivid fire of a family residence (I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil it). Maybe I reacted so emotionally to this episode because 18 years ago I woke up out of a deep sleep (thanks to a smoke detector) with my own house on fire. I was astonished that the smoke hadn’t awakened me earlier. I emptied two fire extinguishers on the fire before the fire department arrived. After watching the TV episode, Renée and I found ourselves walking around our houses evaluating our needs for smoke detector and fire extinguishers. I suspect that other people watching that episode did the same thing. I have my fire extinguisher out in the open and visible. I have smoke detectors on every floor and several rooms.
I know that some fire departments are giving out free smoke detectors. Extinguishers and fire blankets are cheap. COVID-19 is not the only danger out there. Please be safe in all ways!
How many thousands of dissertations will be written about the many ways that this Pandemic has affected us as a society? Here's something that many of us are noticing in my neighborhood. I live in a diverse St. Louis City neighborhood with houses that are often more than 100 years old. These house typically have front porches designed with lots of room for people to spend time on them, but (I suspect) some combination of air conditioning and TV has caused many of these porches to be vacant much of the time. My neighbors and I are seeing a resurgence in the use of these front porches by people seeking to socialize. Increasing numbers of families are out of their porches visiting with each other, visiting with neighbors and chatting with strangers passing by on foot.
I haven't quantified this, but it is apparent and it's a beautiful thing to behold. As a photographer, I would be tempted to use my long range camera to capture a collage of these highly-social images, but I don't want to invade the privacy of my neighbors. Are other people in other neighborhoods around the U.S. noticing anything similar?