Jedi Mind Tricks
If you have six minutes and forty seconds to spare, Paul Hebert’s pecha-kucha on influence is well worth your time…
(And for the record, Paul, I don’t wear socks in the summer.)
Amazing Ant Photography
These photographs of ants by Andrey Pavlov are simply amazing.
These aren’t Photoshopped. It’s just real, live ants, a few props, and lots of patience as Andrey waits for the ants to move into the right positions.
Chairs Suck
It sounds absurd to claim that chairs are dangerous. They’re comfortingly ubiquitous and seem almost too boring to be harmful. But when one considers that the average Briton, for instance, spends over fourteen hours seated per day, relying on chairs for support while working, relaxing, commuting, eating, and sometimes sleeping, it’s easy to believe that chairs could have a serious impact on public health.
If you have ten minutes to spare today, read Colin McSwiggen’s takedown on chairs. Seriously. It’s absolutely fascinating.
The Divided Brain
Contrary to popular belief, the left half of the brain doesn’t control reason, and the right half does not control emotion and creativity. Nor do language or visual perception reside in just one hemisphere.
That said, the brain is most certainly split into two hemispheres that control how we think and act… just not in the way you may think.
This fantastic RSAnimate video of renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our “divided brain” has profoundly altered human behavior, culture and society. Check it out…
How to have a great meeting
How to Have a Great Meeting
1. Throw out the least necessary person at the table.
2. Walk out of this meeting if it lasts more than 30 minutes.
3. Do something productive today to make up for the time you spent here.
Hat tip to Jason Davis
A Better Critique
In a well-run critique, we explicitly separate out the discussion of “What are we trying to do with this design?” from the discussion of “Does this rendition accomplish it?” By separating out these two pieces, we avoid digging into the designer’s work just because they unaware of a critical requirement or need.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a designer, an HR pro, whatever. Go read this post by Jared Spool on a better design critique process right now. It’s awesome.
Hat tip to Rian van der Merwe.
Women in Tech
The MBA@UNC blog ran an interesting infographic a few weeks ago on women in the workplace. Not surprisingly, women are under-represented in both leadership positions, and particularly in the tech industry.
These statistics aren’t necessarily new, but a quote from Arianna Huffington jumped out at me (emphasis mine)…
Media pioneer Arianna Huffington cites lack of confidence as a killer to success for women. In order to advance their careers, women need to be comfortable seeing themselves as qualified leaders and risk takers.
As a man, talking about women’s issues, and in particular contradicting a very successful woman in business, has a very high likelihood of coming across as arrogant. I’m going to do my best to avoid that, but I respectfully disagree with Ms. Huffington. Keep reading…