Category: Psychology & Anthropology

Introducing “AI: Adventures in Ideas,” a New Blog Series from Sudhir Venkatesh. Episode 1: Going Solo – Freakonomics Freakonomics

This is the first installment of a new Freakonomics.com feature from Sudhir Venkatesh. Each AI: Adventures in Ideas post will showcase new research, writing, or ideas. A new book is garnering significant attention. In Going Solo, Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at NYU, looks at a growing trend in contemporary adulthood: living alone. How we live, Klinenberg argues, is shifting, and it could be one of the most important developments of the last half-century.

Source: Introducing “AI: Adventures in Ideas,” a New Blog Series from Sudhir Venkatesh. Episode 1: Going Solo – Freakonomics Freakonomics

 

If someone has their own apartment all on their own, but they see the same group of friends 3 to 5 days a week, are they really living alone?

Social Proof Is The New Marketing | TechCrunch

If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users?  I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web.

What is social proof?  Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.  It’s also known as informational social influence.

Source: Social Proof Is The New Marketing | TechCrunch

The Perils of Thinking Like an Individual

Preferring common sense over abstract economic theory or unreliable historical data may seem like, well, common sense. But there’s another problem with placing too much faith in common sense — namely that although everyone thinks they know what it is, they often invoke it to reach wildly divergent conclusions. And because when something is a matter of common sense it is considered beyond dispute, these disagreements can be extraordinarily difficult to reconcile — as current political debates illustrate.

Source: The Perils of Thinking Like an Individual

 

-OR- The problem with complex topics that most people aren’t educated well enough to understand sufficiently but are still expected to interact with intelligently (e.g. voting on big socioeconomic issues, taking care of one’s own health, properly caring for the environment…).

Scott Adams on the Benefits of Boredom – WSJ

Is constant stimulation hurting our creativity—and the economy? The “Dilbert” creator on his dull childhood and the power of tedium.

Source: Scott Adams on the Benefits of Boredom – WSJ

 

If boredom breeds imagination breeds disappointment, then will the newest generation of never-bored, never-interesting people also be harder to disappoint because they never bother to imagine how much better the world could be?