Category: ideas

The history of the United States is a history of bias and brutality and hubris, but it is also a history of idealism and hard work and soaring optimism. What emerges is an invitation to regard these tessellated truths and conflicting motive forces with an equanimous understanding that can inform a juster, more beautiful, and less conflicted future. – Brainpickings

According to the theory, if students believe that their ability is fixed, they will not want to do anything to reveal that, so a major focus of the growth mindset in schools is shifting students away from seeing failure as an indication of their ability, to seeing failure as a chance to improve that ability. As Jeff Howard noted almost 30 years ago: ‘Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you can get.’ – Aeon

When marketers and technologists think about the applications for artificial intelligence, it’s common to think along the lines of data processing, GPS route-finding, and logistics efficiency. But as artists and creatives embrace the technology, new possibilities are presenting themselves in the forms of creative direction, visual design, and song creation. – CMO

A multi-year project can’t figure out how Europe can reconcile all of the mass graves, no matter how many memorials and museums are built. And things are scary: “After all the truth commissions, all the resolutions of the UN, the international tribunals, we are returning to new forms of fascism, to new, very primal antagonisms.” – El País

Wow. Senator Warren is dropping antitrust ideas as fast as, well, Facebook and Google and Amazon and Apple gobble up our time and privacy. After her Medium post didn’t mention Apple, Warren said she meant Apple as well, and she explained: “What was applied to railroad companies more than a hundred years ago, we need to now look at those tech platforms the same way.” – The Verge

And by that, we don’t mean “worrying about your instrument all of the time,” but rather, if you have the money, “you can simply donate money to your favorite nonprofit — amounts seem to start at around $2,500 — in exchange for the opportunity to tag along on an international tour with the organization.” – The Washington Post

Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called ‘grit’, depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing. – Aeon

The key to making the most out of small talk, according to Harvard researchers, is to simply ask the other person follow-up questions. In a series of experiments, researchers analyzed more than 300 online conversations and found that those who were asked more meaningful follow-up questions (a.k.a. questions that aren’t “how are you?” or “what do you do?”), found the other person much more likable. – CNBC

“The mission of a university I believe should be to understand. And if you do a great job of research, that can be the basis for all kinds of activism later. But if you start with a commitment to a certain way of seeing the world, and you start with a belief that some people are good and some people are bad, I think it makes it very hard to understand real social systems.” – Nautilus

Gone are the sound-absorbing dropped ceilings and acoustical tile, cubicle dividers, wall-to-wall carpets, and upholstered chairs. In their place are reflective high ceilings with exposed H.V.A.C., hardwood surfaces, mesh chairs, and lots and lots of glass. The goal is a buzz, similar to the free-flowing coffee and beer that many provide to their clients. A common citation in the literature that promotes co-working is a 2012 study from the Journal of Consumer Research that concludes the right amount of ambient noise—seventy decibels, roughly the level of a household appliance like a vacuum cleaner, or about the volume you might typically use for a radio or TV—“enhances performance on creative tasks.” – The New Yorker