Category: ideas

At least, that’s the way it is in Estonia, where a candy bar popularized during the world cocoa shortage of 1976 has made a stunning return from the dustpan of history. “For seniors, it represents a bygone era, for teenagers, its yellow and red retro packaging is a symbol of cool junk food. And it’s still cheap.”

“Sudden, unannounced memories might help people make connections between disparate ideas more quickly – but they might also be the building blocks of hallucinations.”

“It’s called the ‘death effect’ and it’s the same for actors, authors and artists — whether it’s an increase in exposure or a supply-induced demand (no more painter, no more paintings), public hunger for a person’s work grows exponentially following their passing. When it comes to musicians, however, the situation has the added element of necromancy, a sort of pop culture-tinged resurrection.”

“Whether it’s with food, alcohol, vacation or relaxing – Germans apparently don’t have the leisure to enjoy things. In fact, they can’t even let go when they’re having sex.”

Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana of the Right Question Institute “are among a handful of thinkers making a career of taking a close look at how questions work, what our brains are doing when they put a question together, and how questions could drive learning, child development, innovation, business strategy, and creativity.”

“Sci-fi classics, such as Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, explore precisely this idea, that highly advanced alien intelligences would be essentially indistinguishable from gods. This is not news, really, as it has already happened right here on Earth a few centuries ago.” (Think of Cortes and the Aztecs.)

“[In] a controlled experiment, ‘subjects significantly preferred spoiled over unspoiled stories in the case of both … ironic twist stories and … mysteries.’ In fact, it seems ‘that giving away … surprises makes readers like stories better.’ perhaps because of the ‘pleasurable tension caused by the disparity in knowledge between the omniscient reader and the character’.”

When a group of straight male students were given a story about a protagonist like themselves, but who was revealed late in the story to be gay, they showed more empathy to the character (and were less likely to stereotype him) than were students who knew the character was gay – or was straight – from the start. Results were similar when white readers read stories about black characters. Publishers already know (or sense) this, but catch hell when they act on it.

“Is this process infuriating? Yes. But is it crucial to their development? Far more than most of us think. … Conversation – and question asking – allows young children to grasp highly abstract concepts, from religion to history, at an earlier age. … [And] the way young children learn can vary surprisingly between working-class and middle-class children, and people from different ethnic backgrounds.”

Alex Pareene: “At this point TED is a massive, money-soaked orgy of self-congratulatory futurism, with multiple events worldwide, awards and grants to TED-certified high achievers, and a list of speakers that would cost a fortune if they didn’t agree to do it for free out of public-spiritedness.”