After being in this field for a hot second, there are just some things that I think are impeding our ability, as an industry, to become more self-sustaining, attract new and younger audiences, and make the arts experience much better for the audience and/or consumer. These are ideas, traditions, thoughts – or “institutional traditions” – that have somehow become the “norm” in our industry and create an environment where we value the tradition over the audience experience – our “user interface”.
Category: ideas
The Man Who Studies Ignorance Explains How It Flourishes
“Robert Proctor explains that ignorance can often be propagated under the guise of balanced debate. For example, the common idea that there will always be two opposing views does not always result in a rational conclusion. This was behind how tobacco firms used science to make their products look harmless, and is used today by climate change deniers to argue against the scientific evidence.”
Mathematics As Beautiful As Any Work Of Art
“We all know that art, music and nature are beautiful. They command the senses and incite emotion. Their impact is swift and visceral. How can a mathematical idea inspire the same feelings? Well, for one thing, there is something very appealing about the notion of universal truth — especially at a time when people entertain the absurd idea of alternative facts.”
Life As A Brand, Or, What Volkswagen Vanagons Mean To Instagram
Social media has made an entirely new job possible: Driving around and taking Instagram-likeable photos of the “ideal” life in a van, preferably a Vanagon. (It helps if you’re a thin, white, yoga-doing naked woman.)
If You’re In Despair About Big Ideas, Don’t Be: They Can Still Change The World
If cognitive dissonance causes people – especially educated people – to cling to their beliefs even harder, what hope is there? Probably a sudden shock: “A worldview is not a Lego set where a block is added here, removed there. It’s a fortress that is defended tooth and nail, with all possible reinforcements, until the pressure becomes so overpowering that the walls cave in.”
What Happened To Google Books, And How Can It Recover?
Google Books was the company’s first big idea, the first moonshot, the first thing that would change everything. “Two things happened to Google Books on the way from moonshot vision to mundane reality. Soon after launch, it quickly fell from the idealistic ether into a legal bog.” And then? It lost any ambition.
They May Have Found Where Empathy Lives In The Brain
They did it by studying the brains of children right at the age where they develop empathy and theory of mind.
The More You Use Facebook, The Worse You Feel, Says (Yet More) Research
“So, while we know that old-fashioned social interaction is healthy, what about social interaction that is completely mediated through an electronic screen? When you wake up in the morning and tap on that little blue icon, what impact does it have on you?” Well, …
Euphemisms May Be Useful, But They Can Erode Your Moral Sense
“Beating around the bush serves a valuable purpose: Not only can it ease potentially awkward social situations, but it also lets people get away with things they otherwise wouldn’t. … [Yet] indirect speech also serves a more personal purpose, helping people to preserve a positive moral self-image even in the face of wrongdoing – which, in turn, may actually facilitate bad behavior.”
Artificial Intelligence Will Likely Change How We Think The World Should Work
In a world of digital assistants and computer-generated imagery, the expectation is that computers do all kinds of work for humans. The result of which, some have argued, is a dulling of the senses. “The miraculous has become the norm. Such a surfeit of wonders may be de-sensitizing, but it’s also eroding our ability to dream at the movies.”