Brain Ticklers Ed. 14

Links for March 2021 with Q-Rated links to tickle your brain

Talofa

Why one more edition in less than a month? And that too, after mentioning that Ed. 13 was for February and March? Because.... Why not? It could be because I am in a cobweb clearance mode and my Evernote with these links were accumulating dust. Or, because I have a big negative anchor task that I am procrastinating on and in that process, finishing tasks like this. Who can say! As long as no animal gets harmed in the making of this, why bother?

What I wrote

• Unanswered Laicite questions: An 8 y.o. questions the merits of the strict form of secularism followed in France, which her father thinks is the ideal one for the world.

• Procrastination Cycle: Illustration of how a cycle of procrastination traverses through your mind, inspired by a comic of a dinosaur seen in a newsletter.

• Values and Value is still in draft stages but in anticipation of that, I suggest you read what is the right right thing to do

Oh-Really

• Here's someone who tracked the lifetime value of each of his garments and has some insights to share. I agree with him mostly. Except that I buy second-tier clothes and still try to drag their use. If you ask if I am happy, well not really. May be I should try only first-tier clothes for a while. Related: A detailed write-up on how to keep your clothes last (almost) forever. (The smell-test is too gross)

• Racism impacts wildlife too. No, not racism within animals. The racism in us affects them. Very interesting! I had thought of this from the perspective of pets earlier but not wildlife in urban areas. Wonder if there is relevance of this in recent sightings of leopards in Bangalore.

• Parents of daughters are more likely to file for divorce, specifically in their teenage years! More so if the father din't have a sister. Oh My! People do strange studies. I think it is simply about going into research with a hypothesis and identifying all evidence to prove it. Even I have a theory on who commits adultery. Anyone up for research?

• South Koreans are being driven mad by noises their neighbors make. Hey this is me: "people seem to be driven mad by the mere existence of their neighbors"

• Dunbar's number is apparently proven through phone call records as well

• There are apparently 4 types of humor and each of them have a way to affect mental health. From the survey link there, these are my scores: Affiliative = 52; Self-enhancing = 32; Aggressive = 34; Self-defeating = 32

• People don't know when the other party in a conversation is disinterested and want them to to shut-up. I agree.

• Rat Traders can predict futures prices better than human traders. An old article but very funny

• There is (was) an Apostrophe Protection Society. Count me as a member. So annoying, it is, to see people using it wrong. (Okay, that puts me in a particular class of the society as seen by a 1983 book (note on it later in this edition)

• More 1-Star reviews for candles in Amazon by users in a particular city in a short period means... wait for it, that city has the virus spreading fast

Interesting-Perspectives

• Atlantic on the importance of casual friendships and weak-ties in our lives. I personally don't think I miss any of these much but your mileage may vary

• On minimalism in design. The Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis story is poignant. Reminded me of places like Chandigarh which were built at the height of high modernism.

• Review of the book "Geography of thought". Looks like an interesting book - Would have picked it up immediately had it had India considered somewhere though. It seems more of West-China. (I think it is high time we stop using the word Asia and get specific).

• Do you understand what electricity is? My 8 y.o. has been semi-content with the answer of "movement of electrons" combined with "I don't understand it too well but you will learn it in higher classes". But I guess this question might haunt her a lifetime.

• Status-seeking as context-neglecting behavior. The part about "people achieving social mobility (i.e. moving from one class to another) assuming that they have now achieved and having lesser children, without realizing that most of their people from the original class have achieved the same" made for interesting thinking

• If you are interested in the idea of panpsychism - that even non-living things have consciousness (like me), this place is a wonderful start. And this argument, that consciousness itself is an illusion and NO ONE has it is equally appealing too

• A review of a 1983 book on "Class" by Astral Ten. Very funny anecdotes etc. One day, if I get the time and energy to, I would like to define the rich, upper-middle, middle, and proles in India.

History, Culture. Society

• How do you organize your bookshelf? Based on color of the book-cover? Or subject? Or something else? Me: Size of the books (typically the height, followed by width, and then the thickness)

• Long note from Waze founder on life inside Google. As a dinosaur at work, I can understand a lot of things he says about the privilege young people expect haha

• Innovators' dilemma in the Top-3 vaccine makers

• Self-medicating media, apparently! YouTube videos of nature sounds, basically

• A long read on a woman's escape from family and grinding her way through the hierarchy to the top of the organization (a brothel). Sad.

• A provocative three-part article on "What students should learn".  Very well written. I am generally of the view that what one studies till Class X should we considered "core" (i.e. no questions should be asked on how it is useful later in life, the liking towards it etc.) but that was in my days I guess when the core involved only a few subjects. If there is foreign language forced upon, may be we do need a rethink.

• Popular books like "Cat in the Hat" had racist connotations, apparently! 😮 Even a day celebrated on Dr. Seuss's birthday will be without his books apparently. IMO, he should leave people from the past alone and not impose our worldview on them. I know Dr. Seuss is not really that long back but still. How many of us have cracked jokes on transgender, homosexuals etc. till it became taboo in the last decade and a half. Think.

Science

• More details emerge on the comet that killed dinosaurs. Just trying to make it sounds like a murder that happened last week

• India and Australia were likely neighbors a few hundred millions back

• Vitamin-D and Coronavirus. Unproven but looks like a good possibility

• There might be a way to communicate with your dreaming self in the future. Beware.

• Volvo is trying to use "sounds" for suppressing motion sickness in self-driving cars. First, I wonder why they couldn't try it on passengers (i.e. who are not driving) currently. Second, I intuitively feel sound will increase motion sickness. (I have struggled with it through life so I know what I am talking about).

• A cephalopod passes marshmallow test

• I remember linking to a Discover Mag article a few editions back on gut-bacteria being replaced healthy ones through fecal implants. And why I would like to get that done. Now, here is a documentary on someone who actually did that.

• Okay, pack your bags. In the far future, we will be able to travel to other stars at speeds faster than light. A Warp Drive is indeed possible. 

Technology

• Unreal engine meta human.  Nice but smile is uncanny.

• On that note, checkout the AI tool that MyHeritage has launched if you want to convert your grandma's photo into a live animation. I did (my own photo, not my grandma's) and the results are good. If you find this smile uncanny, it is just that I smile like that. Not the AI's fault.

• Citibank learns importance of UX design by wasting $500MM. As you may guess, an Indian subcontractor is involved. Haha.

• Causes of Zoom Fatigue. I like the "Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing" haha. Personally, it is not the video calls but the constant staring into a screen without forced breaks like commutes, in-person meetings that have caused strain to my health in the past year.

• Contents of an unopened envelope can be read by scanning them! Used for good reasons here though

• Fascinating article about prosthetic arms (and why they are not useful) by someone who has one

• Detailed analysis of Google's FLoC (cookie replacement). I don't understand deep enough to talk of merits/demerits but in general, I am sympathetic to advertising as a business model.

Perso-Dev (More Philosophy actually!)

• Here is some feline philosophy for you - Live like cats. Not like humans. Or dogs. (Out of nowhere, as I write this, this reminds me of a saying: Pigs are the best pets. Cats think they are masters to humans while dogs think they are slaves to humans. Only pigs treat us equal.) One day, I'll write a book on Sus-ian philosophy.

• The metaphors we live by and the need to rewrite them with positive connotations. My favorite metaphor is one of a moist robot (Scott Adams fan) - mostly in the positive sense ("I can program myself to do whatever I want") I guess.

Why more philosophy here? Because my daughter thinks I am one. And I know you are laughing. Trust me, I will not let her speak with you.

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