question
esiegel | September 6, 2013"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught." -Oscar Wilde
As many of you know, last weekend I launched a suggestion box here on the site, and I've been overwhelmed by the response: about fifty of you have sent something in to me in the first less-than-a-week of this alone!
Image credit: Thao Nelson of http://mycredo.wordpress.com/.
So, let's start answering them! There are more than enough excellent questions and suggestions to keep me busy for a long time, but with the new academic year starting up, one of them…
esiegel | August 31, 2013"I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act." -Orson Welles
It's like that for all forms of storytelling, including the science I write about here. Some of the best conversations happen not because I know something amazing that I want to share with you, but because there's something you want to know about, and I know something that can help you get to where you want to be. But…
edyong | March 19, 2010
We like to be in control of our own lives, and some of us have an automatic rebellious streak when we're told what to do. We're less likely to do a task if we're ordered to do it than if we make the choice of our own volition. It seems that this effect is so strong that it even happens when the people giving the orders are... us.
In a set of three experiments, Ibrahim Senay from the University of Illinois has shown that people do better at a simple task if ask themselves whether they'll do it than if they simply tell themselves to do so. Even a simple reversal of words - "Will I" compared…
rallain | March 24, 2009There are some really cool questions out there. Questions that do not require a lot to ask and do not require a lot to answer. Here is one such question (I can't remember where I first found this question or something like it):
Suppose you put take two identical cans of soda out of the fridge and place them on the floor in the middle of a room. One can you leave alone and one can you cover with a wool blanket. After an hour, you come back and check on the two cans of soda. Which will be warmer?
First, why do I like this question? Mainly because everyone can give an answer. If asked…
rallain | March 23, 2009I have always wanted to ask a question like this - but never found the right test for it. Perfect for a blog.
Question:
Suppose you are in your car at a stop light behind a truck. The truck is pulling a trailer with a rollable tractor on it.
When the light turns green, the truck starts to accelerate. However, the cable holding the tractor to the trailer breaks and the tractor starts to roll off the trailer. You are right behind the trailer. What do you do?
Do you have an answer yet? You should probably come up with one quickly. That tractor is rolling off now. I will put the answer…