Interesting
Google's Teachable Machine lets you quickly experiment with AI ideas.
Janelle Shane's neural network generated cat names
Toby Morris' comic on the effects of privilege.
Parable of the Polygons, showing the effects of our desire (or not) to be around people like us.
Think about how story-telling can be used to elicit the connection you want in your audience, described in this TED talk by David JP Phillips. In public speaking the story-telling "angel's cocktail" consists of: 1. Suspense (Dopamine), 2. Empathy (Oxytocin), and 3. Laughter (endorphin).
Try Hard But Not That Hard: 85% is the Magic Number for Productivity. WSJ article 9/10/23
The 85% approach acknowledges when it is time to give 100%, and when it is OK to dial back, since each task does not require an all-out sprint. This approach is based in part on a 2019 research paper where machine learning was used to determine that an 85% difficulty level was optimal difficulty level for learning, where content and experiences are not so hard that we are discouraged, but not so easy that we get bored.NYT columnist David Brooks writes about making real connections with other people in The Essential Skills for Being Human, 10/19/2023.
Check the wording in a job posting using the gender decoder which identifies words usually associated as more masculine or more feminine.
See this detailed comparison of different types of Bluetooth speakers by Reddit's Obvious-Bird-3588
Ever wonder why the washrooms in so many UIC buildings are on the second floor rather than the first? That's because all main campus buildings used to be connected by a series of large walkways one floor up, so the main entrances were on the second floor. These were demolished in the early 1990's, but but Professor Steward Hicks, UIC School of Architecture, has digitally reproduced them in this YouTube video. See more UIC campus historical photos at the UIC Art & Architecture page and this UIC news article.
Quotes I like:
Aspire to have your vocation in life be where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need. -- Frederick Buechner.
See this and more quotes of his here."Teaching is giving opportunity to the students to discover things by themselves." -- George Polya on teaching, from this 1966 video
Computer pioneer Fred Brooks (1931-–2022) noted that tasks with sequential constraints cannot be executed faster by adding more people. He summarized this idea by saying "The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned".
"Increasingly, people seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is baffling — the incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration."
- Niklaus Wirth, CS Pioneer and creator of the PASCAL programming language. Computer Magazine, 1995, pp. 64-68, vol. 28