HOW TO USE INSTAGRAM TO LEARN ABOUT SOMEONE

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIAL MEDIA / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-07-02

Instagram is a great tool to get to know people. Open a profile and: Scroll through their posts — sample their taste (or lack thereof), attention to detail (feet cut off, random branches in the frame, etc.) Pay attention to the number of selfies —  + 

MEN ALSO TEST THEIR WOMEN

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-06-24

There’s this idea that only women “test” their men. Nah. Men test their women as well. And it’s OK to test early, test often. Even testing to failure. Like we do in engineering. But what’s really important is the quality of those tests. Because the  + 

WHERE TO FIND YOUR CUSTOM WATCHLISTS ON EBAY?

PRODUCTIVITY / WEB DESIGN / ESSAYS / 2020-06-23

If you’re struggling to find your “to buy” lists on eBay… because your “Watchlist” button on top shows empty. hover the “My eBay” button on top left … but don’t click it select the “Watchlist” item in this hovered menu and click that you’ll arrive  + 

IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ADDICTED, DON’T USE IT AS A METAPHOR

HEALTH / ESSAYS / 2020-05-24

“For me, it was like getting addicted to crack / meth / heroin / LSD” … says yet another person who’d never used any of those, and who’d never been addicted to anything worse than caffeine or chocolate. I mean, come on, people, choose your  + 

DO YOU CHOOSE SAFE OR STRONG?

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-05-19

Strong is an active capacity to interact, rebound and grow in adversity (emotional, intellectual, physical). Strong is seeking out adventure and challenge, people that disagree with you, mentors that pinpoint your fallacies, nature that humbles your invincibility. Strong is giving your best to build new  + 

YOU MAY THINK WHATEVER NONSENSE YOU LIKE… TILL REALITY KNOCKS YOU OUT

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-05-06

It’s real simple. The brain is an organ which, like any other organ in the body, maintains an acceptable state of balance to remain alive. Your consciousness is a (small) part of this organ’s activity. To keep the brain in balance, the consciousness creates stories  + 

CAUSES CHANGE. CULTURES REMAIN.

CINEMA / POLITICS / ESSAYS / 2020-04-21

Thanks to HBO’s Chernobyl, fewer people worldwide will rejoice at the officially low stats of Covid-19 deaths in Russia. Causes change. Cultures remain.  + 

I WANTED TO FEEL SAFE

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-04-17

“I wanted to feel safe. So I went to a safe college, my parents told me it’s for my job security. I didn’t go alpine climbing. I didn’t travel to India. I never rode in a helicopter. I never sailed offshore on a sail yacht.  + 

WE KNOW ABOUT THE BAD THINGS WELL IN ADVANCE

HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-03-16

Just to be clear. As a civilisation, we knew about the current viral pandemic, the 2008 crisis, terrorist attacks beforehand… and we know perfectly well about the next climate-change related disasters. Have we done anything to avert “the situation”? Nah, not really. Very similar to  + 

EXPONENTIAL VS LINEAR THINKING IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19

BIOLOGY / MATHEMATICS / PSYCHOLOGY / ESSAYS / 2020-03-09

The people most alarmed about the coronavirus seem to be people accustomed to thinking exponentially — people in tech, finance, and science. People least alarmed are those used to thinking about problems linearly. The problem isn’t the virus itself. It’s the under-provisioned healthcare systems and  + 

COMFORT, PREDICTABILITY, SAFETY AND FUN

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-03-05

Work? 35 hours a week, with counselling and coaching. Travel? Only to pre-approved and reviewed AirBnBs. Sex? Only with inclusive, body-positive people who’ll repeat how gorgeous you are. Not too physical, though. Heart rate below 90 BPM. Drugs? Only comfortable to use, safe to buy,  + 

DOES YOUR COMPANY KNOW HOW TO LIVE FOR ITS CLIENTS?

MANAGEMENT / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-02-20

The French art the vivre? Sure. For yourself. Not your clients. That’s one the main reasons why so many American companies win in Europe. Amazon, Netflix, Apple, 3M, Starbucks, Tesla, UPS… bust their asses to serve.  + 

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE AGES?

CINEMA / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2020-02-17

Judging by the popularity of movie / series franchises, humanity is stuck in the middle ages. Swords, magic, religious sects… Marvel’s super-heroes with gems, hammers, bows and arrows; Star Wars / Mandalorian; Harry Potter; Game of Thrones; The Witcher; Lord of the Rings. The futuresque  + 

EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF TILL THE BITTER END OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION

ECONOMICS / ENVIRONMENT / ESSAYS / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2019-12-13

The UK General Election shows us, yet again, and unlike in the EU Referendum, without any remaining doubt, that the populations most at risk vote for their own masochistic downfall. The people who stand to lose the most from the complete dismantlement of government health  + 

PEOPLE PREFER TO DO SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING, EVEN IF IT’S PAINFUL

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / OUTSIDE NEWS / 2019-12-10

A team at the University of Virginia’s Department of Psychology meta-analysed 11 studies, and “found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much  + 

DEATH ON SCREEN

CINEMA / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2019-11-29

We view death countless times on screens, daily. People exploding, shot, bleeding-out, run-over, cut to pieces in so many “creative” ways. And yet, how many of us think about the inescapable fact that at some point in the future, possibly very near future, we’ll be  + 

FAKE EVERYTHING

RELIGION / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2019-11-20

Fake food. Sugar and salt and glutamates. Fake faces. Make-up, lighting and Photoshop. Fake breasts. Silicone-gel. Fake diplomas. For the rich. Fake furniture. Veneered particle boards. Fake vacations. Staged and edited for Instagram. Fake feelings. Benzodiazepines and SSRIs. Fake songs. Auto-tuned studio and live recordings.  + 

APPLE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BUGS… FOR YEARS

COMPUTERS / ESSAYS / 2019-11-18

Apple really, really doesn’t give a shit about its bugs. For years! Appalling. Apple Mac OS Address Book entries with “son” or “daughter” will cancel the entire sync of contacts data to iPhone. (not talking iCloud sync here) Workaround: change all fields “Son” or “Daughter”  + 

ART IS NOT DEFINED BY ITS MODE OF CONSUMPTION

ART THEORY / CINEMA / PAINTING / ESSAYS / 2019-08-31

People who claim that an art form is defined by its consumption method continue to amaze (aggravate?) me. According to them, next time you buy a painting to hang on your wall, remember that outside the museum, it won’t be a piece of art anymore.  + 

TEACH KIDS TO DISASSEMBLE STUFF… IMPROVE RECYCLING AS CONSEQUENCE

EDUCATION / ENVIRONMENT / GADGETS / ESSAYS / 2019-08-22

We could cut recycling costs significantly if we taught and encouraged kids to disassemble stuff. DIY and engineering hands-on education as as bonus. Girls and boys. Requires better collection points, but otherwise, nothing fancy.  + 

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