There have been two fascinating articles published in the past few days talking about how we perform under pressure. Both are fascinating reading. In the first, The Guardian examines why athletes choke. The short answer: you think too much. When you’re a master athlete, you have muscle memory and your actions are literally built into… Continue reading Under Pressure
Category: Science
Simple is the New Complex
This weekend I walked into a gallery on 21st street and saw this sculpture: This photo captures the components of the system, but not the dynamics of it. Basically, you’re looking at two fans facing each other and connected by four pieces of fishing line. Around the fishing line are wrapped two circular streamers of… Continue reading Simple is the New Complex
The (Behavioural) Economist
I’ve noticed a lot of musings about behavioural economics over the past few months (to the point that Wendy’s currently taking a class on it at Columbia). A lot of it has been related Richard Thaler‘s recent book Nudge, plus the fact that he frequently consults Austin Goolbee, one of Obama’s top economic advisers. One… Continue reading The (Behavioural) Economist
Today’s Word of the Day: Apophenia
Today I read the most recent entry in Strange Maps, talking about humans tend to see things where they don’t really exist (read their blog entry for some great photos). There’s a technical word for this – apophenia. The best part of reading this article is that it anchored me to start seeing patterns where… Continue reading Today’s Word of the Day: Apophenia
Visualizing Information
A little over a week ago I attended Edward Tufte‘s day-long course on how to visualize information. What follows is a chronological summary of what he presented; the course consists of a series of infographics along with running commentary. The first infographic was actually an animation: the Music Animation Machine‘s rendering of Chopin’s Berceuse, opus… Continue reading Visualizing Information