“Some things that it would be great to see in 2015 are: Facebook optimizing the newsfeed to help its users grow and develop, not just click. Amazon optimizing recommendations for user satisfaction, not just purchase. Brain-training that actually works. Services that allow people to better understand themselves, make better decisions, become happier.”
Category: ideas
The Internet Is Bad. The Internet Is Good. The Internet Is … A Trip.
“Being able to see hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of people unwittingly having the same thoughts at the same time in plain view is, ironically, something that makes the internet really intimate.”
The Talent Pipeline Of Arts Education Fuels The Creative Economy
“Before the 19th century, U.S. economy was an agricultural economy. In the 19th century and 20th century, we turned to an industrial economy. In the 21st century, we are turning to a creative economy. In a creative economy, innovative people with new ideas, artistic view and mindset will be needed more than ever.”
Can Performing Shakespeare Help Ease The Symptoms Of Mental Illness?
“Suffering can be alleviated through the discipline of creative practices that serve to weave formless, unarticulated pain into something tangible, ordered and ultimately pleasurable.”
Technology Is Changing Our Lives. How We Control That Technology Is Getting To Be A Bigger Issue
“Just as the change from hand work to mass production dramatically changed our society over 100 years ago, the digital revolution isn’t just altering specific sectors of the economy, it is changing the way we think and live. This time, though, the transformation is different. This time, it is being driven by just a few hundred people.”
Common Experience, Different Impact: Why Are People Affected Differently By Trauma?
“A strange fact of human nature is that two people can experience exactly the same seemingly traumatic event and respond completely differently. One might face years of struggles as a result of suffering from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological fallout, while the other, after an initial period of being shaken up, bounces back completely.”
Will Virtual Reality Help Heal People?
“For years, virtual reality has made inroads in helping to treat serious phobias, post-traumatic stress, and burn victims’ pain. Now, as the price of VR tech plummets, this therapeutic tech is advancing—and could soon become available to many more people who need it.”
Prediction: A New Industrial Revolution Will Transform Our Culture
“White-collar service industries are currently witnessing a huge increase in automation. Artificial intelligence, analytics and voice-recognition technologies are taking over more and more tasks employees used to do. Retailing is another example: we’re moving from physical to virtual retailing. Even lawyers, accountants or radiologists are afraid of the prospect of losing their job to a machine or algorithm.”
The Power And Importance Of Touch (It’s Huge)
Remember the orphanages of Ceausescu-era Romania, overstuffed and understaffed institutions where infants and young children were severely touch-deprived – and grew up seriously disturbed? Maria Konnikova explains why that was no fluke.
Why Do Japanese Seem Fond Of Insects While Westerners Abhor Them?
“Travel agencies advertise firefly-watching tours, there are televised beetle-wrestling competitions and beetle petting zoos. Department stores and even vending machines sell live insects. … Not all Japanese, perhaps not even the majority, admire insects. But while Western culture amplifies our perhaps innately human suspicion of insects into distaste and fear, Japanese culture encourages affection, even reverence, for the six-legged. Why?”