Category: ideas

Make it dark, make it slightly loud, add some wine: “Recent research has shown that messy, dark, noisy, booze-filled environments … can, in fact, help stimulate creativity.”

As Getty Images makes photos free via a new app,”the person who owns the copyright — the contributor, the one whose creativity made the image — is not getting anything from this.”

“Mindfulness is critical particularly for artists, who are sometimes naturally inclined to behave instinctively, because it keeps resentments and anger from building up.”

“There are still cases when I want to physically experience a product before I buy it, since the product is not standardized. I want to feel and test it. My decision as to whether to buy it or not depends on the feel of it and on a conversation with the sales staff that cannot be replaced by or compensated through a return service.”

“Eavesdrop on a conversation and it’s likely that, sooner or later, a concept invented or popularised by the founding father of free association will pop up. Oedipus complex. Denial. Id, ego and super-ego. Libido. Death wishes. Anal retentiveness. … Phallic symbols. Projection. And, of course, Freudian slips.”

“Sleep loss, researchers contend, works kind of like credit. Skip a few hours of sleep, and you’ll be all right, so long as you pay back the ‘debt’ in a timely manner. But when sleepless nights stretch on for weeks, or months, your sleep debt starts to accumulate.”

“What is the difference? For me, innovation requires a radical new understanding of some basic questions of your craft. On the other hand, incremental invention only extends what you already know.”

“Change is exciting, but it can also be exhausting. And for the first time in a long time, reactions to the Apple Watch reveal seem to underscore exhaustion as much as excitement. But even these skeptical replies question the watch’s implementation, rather than express lethargy at the prospect of living in the world it might bestow on us.”

“Data analytics in support of human decision making, however, has one flaw — the human. This weak link in the data-driven agility chain becomes apparent as we move to Big Data: as the data grow so too do the results of the analyses, and yet people have a limited attention span and with it, the ability to process information. It doesn’t matter how wonderful the reports your newfangled Big Data tool generate if no one has the time or predilection to read them — or even worse, understand them.”

“For something so prevalent in our society, there is surprisingly little conclusive research on how social media affects our offline relationships. Yes, there have been articles proclaiming the downfall of personal relationships because of social media, but there have also been studies arguing that social networking leads to greater amounts of personal interaction.”