Category: ideas

It turns out that people who feel relaxed spend far more freely than those who feel less at ease, even when they are in an equivalent emotional state.

Esther Dyson: “Many companies [in the Internet age] are looking for ways to automate the act of ‘paying attention’ to individual customers on a grand scale, even as many of them also confuse attention with intention (to buy). … But attention is neither a currency nor a commodity. It can, to some extent, be bought and sold. But it cannot be traded to third parties, and it is not entirely fungible.”

Jonathan Jones: “Why did Christianity, alone among the great world religions, lead eventually to the birth of a secular society by the 20th century? Because it is the only one that so fiercely condemns a basic human biological drive.”

Wired: Would you want to be dyslexic if you could choose to be?
Brock Elde: Absolutely! It’s a phenomenal kind of wiring.

“For those already texting a lot (some users text upwards of 3,000 messages a month), there’s only so much you can increase from there. Alternatively, with the rising popularity of smartphones, are we simply turning to other options?”

“Are women, with their strong communication sills and social savviness, more equipped to thrive in our modern digital age? Are men becoming unnecessary? Or are we just working our way to a new normal, where men and women develop a different set of expectations for themselves and each other? “

“What could possibly be wrong with asking Harvard students to be nice to one another? This year, freshmen are being asked to make the following pledge: ‘As we begin at Harvard, we commit to upholding the values of the College and to making the entryway and Yard a place where all can thrive and where the exercise of kindness holds a place on a par with intellectual attainment’.”

“Airport security may soon have a new way to check your ID: watching the way you walk. It seems footsteps are as unique as fingerprints, and can identify people with 99.8 per cent accuracy.”

“[Our] noses are in fact exquisitely sensitive instruments that guide our everyday life to a surprising extent. Subtle smells can change your mood, behaviour and the choices you make, often without you even realising it. … The big mystery is why we aren’t aware of our nasal activity for more of the time.”

“Instead of constructing personal micro-economies that allow us to make sense of complexity, we are turning media into a mirror that reflects our own prejudices back at us. Even worse, services like Google and Facebook distort the mirror so that it exaggerates our grosser characteristics.”