Thursday 23 March 2017

interesting #6: on the future

1. Tyler Cowen on the future
So we’re going to see a kind of intellectual war, and possibly war in other, more violent forms too. That war, using that word in the broadest sense possible, will be between today’s amazing accumulated stock of human capital — and the emotional momentum behind authoritarianism, which is encouraged by the political fraying that stems from underlying fears of disruption.

2. Is violent upheaval the only cure for inequality?, Futurity 

3. 2016 was the year solar panels finally became cheaper than fossil fuel, Quartz

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Wednesday 11 January 2017

interesting #5: on emotions and image in the digital age






2. Instagram made me feel bad about myself—until I hacked its algorithms to improve my body image, Quartz
Sounds clickbaitey, but actually insightful. Be careful about what you like . How to not expose yourself to comparing? Hack instagram to learn from it instead of letting it make you feel unhappy. Relevant in the digital age

It’s not me, I swear: The Explore tool mingles personalized images with trending content, so even if you completely ignore images you don’t want to see, they may still show up. There’s also a problem with hashtags. If you “like” an image with a certain hashtag, the algorithms seem to think you want to see more photos grouped by that hashtag. Try to consider your feed holistically, rather than each specific image.
Reset: If certain types of images particularly upset you, click on the Instagram option “I don’t want to see this anymore.”

Learn to learn better. Break up with someone before exam season? (mainly kidding) 

We have known for quite some time that emotional experiences stick in the memory better than non-emotional ones do. However, in the Nature Neuroscience study, the researchers demonstrate that non-
emotional experiences that followed emotional ones were also better remembered on a later memory test.

Very do androids dream of electric sheep?. Emotions on command? Where does being human end and being a robot start if we're able to program ourselves? 

With a pair of regular headphones, users can access an accompanying app to access the binaural beats that tweak brain wave frequencies. Through the audio tracks, the company claims that ReNu can oscillate the frequency between alpha and theta zones -- essentially producing a state of deep relaxation and recovery to cope with a stressful day. The product is expected to officially launch later in the Fall this year.


For instance, in one of our studies, conducted in 2013, we asked 400 people to recall and write about their past experiences: some people recalled and wrote about their past unethical actions, some about their past ethical actions, and others recalled and wrote about other types of actions not related to morality.

We found that, on average, participants remembered fewer details of their actions and had less vivid memories of unethical behaviors as compared to ethical behaviors or positive or negative (but not unethical) actions.

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Thursday 29 December 2016

interesting #4


1 Interactive: mapping the flow of international trade, visual capitalist
Who trades what with who? Beautiful map. For Belgium it's mostly US, China and neighbouring European countries.

 2. We know nothing about the future of sex robots, Engadget
Should a sex robot be able to withdraw consent if it thinks the act of sex would be harmful to its user? That's one of several instances Bendel outlined in which the needs of the robot and its user may conflict. If the user begins showing signs of physical distress or fatigue, is it wise to program conditions whereby the bot would turn itself off? We don't have an answer, but we'll need one -- and soon.

 3. Price tags: celebrities on social media, the Economist
Influencers can earn anywhere from $12,500 (100-500k followers) - $300,000 (over 7m followers) per youtube post. for instagram it's $5,000 (100-500k followers) - $150,000 (over 7m followers). Keep in mind that an instagram post is basically just a picture. That's a very expensive picture.

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book log: 2016

2016
nonfiction
elon musk bio, ashlee vance

if this is a man, primo levi 
the truce, primo levi

how to create a mind, kurzweil

outliers, gladwell
blink, gladwell
tipping point, gladwell
david and goliath, gladwell 


monkey business, rolfe and troobe
straight to hell, john lefevre

fiction
invisible monsters, chuck palahniuk 
haunted, palahniuk

we, zamyatin yevgeni
fahrenheit 451, bradbury
ready player one, ernest kline
the windup girl, paolo bacigalupi


I am no one you know, joyce carol oates
oscar et la dame rose, eric-emmanuel schmitt 
women, bukowski 

in process 
physics of the future, kaku

for 2017 (?)
do androids dream of electric sheep , p. k. dick
nothing is true and everything is possible, pomerantsev
the captive mind, milosz
the omnivores dilemma 
     
at the existentialist cafe
josefine mutzenbacher
ralph waldo emerson

to kill a mockingbird
the rebel, camus
moonwalking with einstein, 

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year in review: 2016





year of big changes: everything seems to move so slow until you look back and realize everything's different


  • started the year on 01/01 in shanghai, beijing two months and a half, visited xian, home in antwerp for six months, algarve in portugal for a week and ended the year again in shanghai (four months) where I also visited suzhou and beijing again
  • got my bachelor degree in social economics, economics and sociology (sociaal-economische wetenschappen) 
  • read a ton of books 
  • went from very very basic to great at basic conversation in french. estimate learned about 800 words (writing) in chinese. props to german for effort 
  • finished a marketing internship in beijing and a logistics internship in Antwerp 
  • got a full scholarship to go do my masters in shanghai, became financially independent from my parents
  • started attending Toastmasters to work on public speaking. gained confidence talking in front of people 
  • volunteered at a startup conference 



A lot changed. Met people, got a lot of opportunities. I'm lucky and I learned a lot, pushed myself, 
got out of my comfort zone. looking forward to more of that in 2017.



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Friday 23 December 2016

stats #1: terrorism


Terror in perspective, the Economist

– You are 35,079 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

– You are 33,842 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

Wikipedia notes that obesity is a a contributing factor in 100,000–400,000 deaths in the United States per year. That makes obesity 5,882 to times 23,528 more likely to kill you than a terrorist.

Terrorism statistics, Global Research

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interesting #3


1. Largest digital survey of the sky mapped billions of stars, EngadgetSee picture. Two petabytes of data. That's one thousand million million, or 10^15 bytes.2. Can you tell if you'll like someone based on their profile picture?, QuartzGuessing people would want to know more than ever with the holidays coming up. Superficiality of the digital era? Framing? Priming?Despite the wealth of new information available in the live interaction, perceivers’ judgments based on the photograph they had seen months earlier strongly predicted their judgments following the live interaction. If perceivers had formed a favorable impression of the woman based simply on her portrait, they continued to hold a favorable impression of her following the interaction. If perceivers had initially formed an unfavorable impression, then they continued to hold these unfavorable impressions, even after meeting her.3. In defence of hate speech, the trial of Geert Wilders, the EconomistRelevant in an age where echo chambers have gone mainstream.Proponents of hate-speech laws argue that they foster social harmony by forcing people to be more polite to each other. The opposite is more likely to be true. Criminalising something as subjective as the giving of offence encourages more people to say they are offended, so they can use the law to suppress views they dislike. This enrages those who are silenced; hardly a recipe for social tranquillity.4. Learn a new lingo while doing something else, Scientific AmericanAs someone who's trying to get their French and Chinese up to par, this is interesting. Basically passive language learning. For me, it's about integrating small things into my life and creating the right habit. French music through Stromae, improve listening skills through movies .... Time to start watching a series I like and pretend that I'm doing it to learn. You'll never have to work a day in your life if you love your job, right?

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