Dan Ariely on the paradox of productivity tools
Dan Ariely has a good post about why our current "productivity tools" generate time-wasting or addictive behavior: he looks to B. F. Skinner's work on "schedules of reinforcement"
Quote of the day
On the downside of ease: [Learning things] the hard way's hard, but not as hard as the easy way. (Esmeralda Weatherwax, in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies)
Calendars, concentration, and creativity
Via Lifehacker, a nice little essay on "the chokehold of calendars," and how we've accidentally (or thoughtlessly) designed them to kill our productivity and concentration: The idea of
Not long now
Two weeks to Cambridge and counting... [To the tune of Kenneth Gilbert, "Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 - Prelude & Fugue #3 In C Sharp, BWV 848,"
Ngrams of unintended consequences
Inspired by the Google Labs Ngram suggesting that we've reached peak future, I decided to map the term "unintended consequences," and for good measure "unanticipated consequences." I've been
History of technology, key to the future
One of the truisms about futures is that insights can come from all kinds of unusual places and unexpected corners of the world. This morning I ran across
Scholarly publishing really is just a form of vanity publishing
Okay, all publishing involves at least a little bit of vanity, but... I recently published an article in an Elsevier journal, and today they sent me a message
“Solvitur ambulando” was the first expression of embodied cognition
In the New York Times, Edinburgh philosopher Andy Clark has a nice essay on embodied cognition. If you’re familiar with his book Natural Born Cyborgs, you’ll already know
“Personal technologies today are prosthetics for our minds,” but we need “personal technologies that are prosthetics for our beings”
Linda Stone makes the case for post-productive, "conscious computing:" Personal technologies today are prosthetics for our minds.... Thirty years ago, personal computing technologies created a revolution in personal
Mindfulness and contemplation in weight loss, futures, and computing
Over the last couple years I've lost about fifty pounds. As nerdy as this will sound, while I was a fat kid and spent my adult life overweight,