Brain Ticklers, Ed. 38
Links for March 2023 that [carnivas thinks] will tickle the brains of his [purportedly] intelligent friends (and his future-self).
Greetings, fellas.
We (family) watched 12 Angry Men last month, and I liked the word ‘fella’ often used there. How did February treat all of you? With the base effect in place (from the lows of January), it was indeed good for me. Hope it was, for you, too. My workplace will soon have a 3-day work-from-office policy, and at different times of the day, I am in different stages of Kubler-Ross.
(Thanks to those kind folks who asked why there is no “What I wrote” section these days. Well, because, there is nothing “I wrote”. But thanks for the nudge, and I do hope the lazy organism inside me heard those and will make some amends in that area.)
I did read/sample numerous books over the months, and would like to give a short write-up on those, but again that seems hard work, so I keep postponing that. If you think that would interest you, let me know, and I will put in a word to that inner organism fella.
Let’s jump onto the links.
History
The developing country industrialization series. (This is a wonderful set of articles about emerging economies, including India)
Argentina was rich. Then it became poor for no clear reason. It could become very rich again.
The story of Bhagat Singh Thind is the story of how powerful institutions used the concept of “whiteness” to decide who gets to be a citizen in America. (Amazing one. Don't miss)
Maoist echoes in Xi
From mansplaining about breastfeeding to debates on developmental toys, medieval parenting was full of familiar dilemmas
Culture/Society/Parenting (& stuff like that)
Why is patriarchy not equally patriarchal everywhere?
An illustrated primer on what the heck is "Adult Development"?
The childhoods of exceptional people involved curating an exceptional milieu, providing dedicated tutoring and opportunities for apprenticeship.
Despite years of evidence that starting school later promotes better health and improved grades, too few schools have adopted this measure (Oops!)
Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) appears to be as effective as pharmacotherapies in the short term, but more effective in the longer term.
Glimpses of humanity in an unlikely corner of the internet – Google Reviews.
Roald Dahl – 2001 authorized Puffin edition vs. 2022 authorized Puffin edition. (Well, I know we would rather not use certain words anymore, but I don't see a point in changing an old book on this!)
When does charity become porn?
All cultures share a few key features: Language. Tools. Marriage. Family. Ritual. Music. And penis-stealing witches. Hilarious note on several mass hysteria stuff across cultures. If you are interested in mob psychology, don't miss.
Interesting-Perspectives (mostly Work-life related this time!)
Ageism: the last acceptable prejudice
We’re in a productivity crisis, according to 52 years of data. Things could get terrible. (It looked to be an interesting read, until I noticed that this person was selling a course!)
Price’s Law: The square root of the number of people in a domain do 50% of the work. (Crazy!)
Annual performance reviews ruin everything
Your most pointless meetings aren't the ones you expect (Hint: They are the 1:1s)
Why would it be so bad if our species came to an end?
A sensible addition to the repertoire of public knowledge about personality, beyond the main traits (like the Big 5), is "personality consistency". (Made me think, as I consider myself to be in v3 of my life).
A great round-the-globe yacht race, narrated through the perspective of "maintenance"
The main reason that most of us look more boring in public is that social predators lie in wait there. (Insert your favorite character of Banshees of Inisherin, ha).
Science & Technology (mostly ChatGPT I guess, ha!)
Apparently, text is all you need to create personhood
ChatGPT is a blurry version of the web (analogous to lossless and lossy compression!)
Seeing ChatGPT in action has felt to people like the first time they saw a web browser, or realized they could surf the Internet from the tiny screen of a Palm Treo device. (Not this person in particular, but didn't countless people – highly reputed ones—tell in 2021 that Crypto felt like the early days on the Internet?)
Do you know about the short story, "I have no mouth, and I must scream"? (Nothing to do with ChatGPT and stuff, ha!)
How AI is de-ageing stars on screen
Self-healing nature is not always the happy path you expect it to be
New antibiotic cures super bugs without bacterial resistance
Are bioinspired drones the next big thing in unmanned flight? (Looks cool.)
A paper claims the NHS COVID-19 app in England and Wales ("contact tracing app") helped avert about 9600 deaths.
Perso-Dev
The cornerstone of internet success is not intelligence or novelty or outrageous-ness or even speed, but regularity.
See your scores on six psychological needs (DRAMMA) by doing this survey
Once you’ve formed a belief, adding exceptions and justifications becomes easier than updating it.
Practicing productive procrastination
Why not embrace the stuff you’ve always wanted to do, even if you're mediocre?
Did you know about this "pyramid of success"? Don't judge me (in any angle), but this was new to me.
The Sequences (series on Rationality) in a Zoomer-readable format
Random
Found this phrase "God is not on his side but at his side" somewhere and got curious about the ON/AT differences. After going into a rabbit hole of grammar websites, found this answer comprehensive. Specifically for this phrase, it would mean: If the sentence is meant to suggest emotional support, that would be better conveyed with the idiom at his side. However, if there was a feud in progress, and they were allies, then on his side would be the best way to express that.
Have you wondered why Indian languages (well, if you know one) don't have too many punctuations? (Or use the English ones)
Came across this concept of "Intelligent Disobedience" and it sounded cool, even if only to casually slip it into conversations.
I read an onion article after a really long time: It is journalism’s sacred duty to endanger the lives of as many trans people as possible
UK sales director, fired for being bald, wins compensation. (Bald people, FTW. Yay!)
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