Google learned early on to devote time to training its people to relax – and that was for business purposes. “Meditation and other restful practices don’t just help workers disconnect—they may boost innovation, too.”
Category: ideas
Books Are Garbage
A meditation upon the titles we throw away: “I no longer go to church, since here in the Catskills we have the dump. Ours is the purest iteration of the cathedral: on a windswept rise under a ceiling of sky, the enclosing mountains the choir waiting silently to begin. Beneath the metal eaves of a soaring peaked roof, mortal leavings gather.”
Taking Seriously The Art And Culture Of Berlin’s Roma Population
The Roma in Europe number about 12 million, the largest ethnic minority in Europe – and after generations of working on it, they’re getting their own institute for arts and culture.
Rich People’s Demonstrations Of Status Are Changing – It’s No Longer Just About Conspicuous Consumption
“The democratisation of consumer goods has made them far less useful as a means of displaying status. In the face of rising social inequality, both the rich and the middle classes own fancy TVs and nice handbags. They both lease SUVs, take airplanes, and go on cruises. On the surface, the ostensible consumer objects favoured by these two groups no longer reside in two completely different universes. Given that everyone can now buy designer handbags and new cars, the rich have taken to using much more tacit signifiers of their social position.”
‘We Never Really Left High School At All’ – How Popularity Matters Throughout Adult Life
“Study after study … suggest[s] the ways that popularity imprints itself on people’s lives, far beyond the teenage years, through both its presence and its absence. Popularity affects people’s ability to find success in their careers, regardless of their intelligence or their work ethic. It affects their ability to find fulfilling friendships and romantic relationships. … [It’s] much like class in America: It divides people. It defines people. Yet we generally treat it as a relic of the past – as something that was, once, but that thankfully is no more.”
Researchers Are Teaching Machines How To Draw. Is This A Way To Teach Them To Think?
“For humans, a sketch is a depiction of a real thing. We can easily understand the relationship between the abstract four-line representation and the thing itself. The concept means something to us. For SketchRNN, a sketch is a sequence of pen strokes, a shape being formed through time. The task for the machine is to take the essences of things depicted in our drawings and try to use them to understand the world as it is.”
Here’s Why Some People Are Fascinated By Gross Internet Videos
“Dr. Pimple Popper” (a California dermatologist), for instance, has well over 2 million YouTuibe subscribers. “There’s actually a psychological explanation for loving these videos – or at least voluntarily watching more of them.” Katherine Ellen Foley explains this intersection between disgust and curiosity.
Worrying Can Be Good For You (Sometimes)
It can be a motivator to do what needs to be done, and (like banging your head against the wall) you can feel much better after you stop. The key, as usual, is moderation.
Why Your Next Creative Collaborator Might Be An AI
“The computer learns by having another algorithm—a teacher—progressively introduce constraints—here are different available instruments, these are chords, this what it means to sing in soprano. In essence, the algorithm is replicating Bach’s creativity based, not evolving its own creative genius. As such, AI algorithms are best suited to be creative collaborators.”
How Recognizing People’s Faces Works In The Brain
“As far as your neurons are concerned, a face is a sum of separate parts, as opposed to a single structure.”