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Reader Greg Miller has made one of our book concepts stickier. Here’s the relevant passage of our book and then Miller’s improvement…
Another way to bring statistics to life is to contextualize them in terms that are more human, more everyday. As a scientific example, contrast the following two statements:
Scientists recently computed an important physical constraint [...]
This American Life recently ran an episode called “The Giant Pool of Money,” which explained the subprime mortgage crisis, and since then it has become the most-downloaded episode of all time. By a margin of 50,000 downloads and counting…
Jay Rosen at Pressthink calls it “the best work of explanatory journalism I have ever heard.” And, [...]
1. From a letter sent to me by AmEx: “Dear Cardmember, We are pleased to notify Cardmembers that the $1,000,000.00 Prize in the Super Million Dollar XV Sweepstakes presented by American Express Publishing is still available and could be yours to win. The Prize Entry Number that decides the person who will win the $1,000,000.00 [...]
The evidence says that people who buy mutual funds retire a lot poorer than if they’d simply bought index funds. So why do mutual funds keep growing? In our latest Fast Company column, we explore why it’s so hard to get the truth to stick.
Brawndo. A fake sports drink brand in a satirical movie (Idiocracy) becomes real, and now it’s a real brand but it’s still satirical, and it seems to be satirizing a RabidMacho kind of sensibility, and people who drink it must be mocking that sensibility, right?, except that RabidMacho people will almost certainly love the brand [...]
Here’s Google CEO Schmidt, in response to a question about whether Google is “dumbing down” kids:
Kids use [Google] all the time because it’s a new way of learning. When I was growing up, in Virginia, they made me memorize the names of all the capitals of every county in the state. Completely useless information. So [...]
You know that one GM Olympics ad? The one that’s seemingly stuck on repeat, the one with the uplifting song that starts, “All of these lines across my face…” Well, I adore it, because it seems to be a rare specimen: the self-refuting argument. First, there’s the primary argument, made via the titles: “…goes for [...]
The UK Open Memory Championships will be held next weekend in London. From the Times Online story:
To put it into perspective: on average most of us can recall between five and nine numbers in a row. The eight-times world memory champion Dominic O’Brien, 50, can remember the order of 54 randomly shuffled decks of playing [...]
I have mixed feelings about this series of spots from the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board in Ontario. (And if the “Safety & Insurance Board” sounds boring, well, you’re in for a surprise.)
The spots show regular workers — a sous chef, a forklift driver, a welder — who suffer rather dramatic and painful calamities due [...]
Here are our last few Fast Company columns — hope you enjoy:
- Get Laziness on Your Side: How to sway people’s decisions with the gentlest of nudges
- A Dirty Shame: How marketers create disgust and embarrassment — and why we shouldn’t put up with it
- Anchor and Twist: How to get your audience to understand [...]
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