Do not miss this very funny NPR piece by Robert Krulwich on some of the liberties taken by scientists in naming species. (The audio is great — don’t stop at the text.) Preview:
The rule is that anytime someone finds an animal, vegetable or mineral new to science, the discoverer, like Adam, has the privilege of […]
Author Archive for danheath
We’ve received a fair number of angry letters on our anti-mutual-funds column in Fast Company — exclusively, btw, from mutual fund employees or investment advisors. Here’s a teaser:
Let’s pull off the Band-Aid quickly. You’ve come to believe that mutual funds are a smart place to put your money. They’re not.
That’s the assessment of the smartest minds in […]
Sign spotted today: “YES, we have patchouli.”
Jacob Weisberg thinks Obama needs a good catchphrase for his economic plan:
If you go to the economy section on Obama’s Web site, the banner that greets you proclaims, “Responsible Tax Cuts for Ordinary Americans.” It’s accompanied by an image of two piggy banks, a small one labeled “Taxes” and a big one labeled “Savings.” The […]
You’ve got to know when to Fuld ‘em
Published by September 18th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion and Story. 6 CommentsNicholas Kristof has a sticky piece today on the grotesque overpayment of CEOs who fail. Case in point: Richard Fuld, chief of the now-flushed Lehman Brothers, made a half-bil between 1993 and 2007. Good investment.
This story, and others like it, run the board on the traits of a sticky idea: They’re simple (Too much money!). […]
Hands-only CPR
Published by September 11th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness and Concreteness. 5 CommentsChip and I were thrilled to work with the AHA on their new campaign promoting “Hands-only CPR.” (Our role was limited: We led a workshop early in the process as the AHA team contemplated how to talk about the new technique. But we had nothing to do with the ingenious commercials that Jerry Potts and his […]
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 myth of mutual funds
Published by August 19th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Credibility and Emotion. 5 CommentsThe 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.
Recent Comments