Things I’ve Benefited from Reading:
| Our recorded laughs were taken either from real conversations between friends in a laboratory setting, or they were produced on command, also in the lab. As we expected, listeners were able to tell the “real” laughs (which we call spontaneous) from the “fake” laughs (which we call volitional) about 70 percent of the time. But people definitely made mistakes, and at a rate that was a little surprising. In our initial experiment, people thought fake laughs were real about a third of the time. (here)
| “I just want to check in and see…” “I’m just concerned that…” We insert justs because we’re worried about coming on too strong, but they make the speaker sound defensive, a little whiny and tentative. Drop ’em! (here)
| In fact, only 4% of all stay-at-home moms are in this highly educated category. According to Pew, only about 10% of women with such qualifications decide to stay home. And almost 90% of those say they intend to return to work and historically 70% of them do, after about an average of two and a half years. (here)
| Each step countering the current culture of consumption is like running into a 50-mph headwind — you’re not moving fast. Bucking the status quo means isolating yourself from society’s expectations of amassing wealth. But the reality is we don’t own anything — ever. I mean it! (here)
| But, but…here is the thing. In terms of the internet, nothing has happened yet. The internet is still at the beginning of its beginning. If we could climb into a time machine and journey 30 years into the future, and from that vantage look back to today, we’d realize that most of the greatest products running the lives of citizens in 2044 were not invented until after 2014. People in the future will look at their holodecks, and wearable virtual reality contact lenses, and downloadable avatars, and AI interfaces, and say, oh, you didn’t really have the internet (or whatever they’ll call it) back then. (here)
Have you read anything this week that made you stop and think?
