Endemic species
Most discussions about environmental conservation focus on whether plants and animals are native to a particular habitat, but in the Galapagos, the government also focuses on »
Removing mental friction
When possible, remove mental friction from things you (want to) do regularly, no matter how small. This may mean leaving work materials out, so you can »
Why do we still have electronic toll transponders?
Given that authorities can reliably send bills to owners of cars that fail to pay tolls by using OCR to read license plates, why do drivers »
News has changed from pull to push
One of the dangerous conveniences afforded by social media is that news consumption has changed from pull to push. With personalized feeds, readers no longer need »
Mirror face
People make distinct faces when they look at themselves in the mirror. It's particularly interesting to see the faces people make when seeing themselves in a »
Separate comforters
In Scandinavia, I've noticed that beds, which are intended for two people, often have a single fitted sheet with two separate comforters - one for each »
Communicating discounts
Growing up in the United States, I've taken for granted that people communicate sale prices by noting that a product is X% off. In other words, »
Gambler's fallacy
Users tend to think software is malfunctioning if the same number is randomly generated at an "unnaturally" high frequency. But if each event is »
How should text be oriented on a vertical banner?
On vertical banners, text can be rendered so that letters are stacked on top of one another, read from top to bottom. But other times the »
Don't tell people how to do things
It's often hard for managers to resist the temptation to make people do things they way they would have. Unfortunately, even when well-intentioned, micromanagement is suffocating »