Articles ideas:
This section is supposed to be a petri dish for some drafts articles and thoughts I have (and some had for years) but either have not matured enough or I haven’t been diligent/persistent/industrious (basically not lazy) enough to fully flesh out into an article.
Previously many of these have lived in Google keep notes or in Docs. This will keep them a little more top of mind for me for further exploration and visible so people who want to connect on these topics can see them.
We are all playing games: Even when we are unaware, our brains are playing games and gamifying elements of our lives. Could be optimization games, chance games etc.
Compounding externalities
Moments of truth
Thinking Longs and Shorts
Blended ratings and averages
The hubris of intelligence:
Below: The hipster and the surgeon
The optimizer’s curse
[Voice notes from google keep]
The hipster font and the surgeon: (voice notes)
1:53 PM
This article is part of a series to bring to opposing thoughts to gather into one.
There are two different sets of frameworks to
Choose.
Quality.
One of them, I would call. The. Coffee shop font. Framework.
Naming it after my wife's claim that she can guess the quality of the coffee in the coffee shop based.
On the font of their sign outside.
There was recently a Twitter conversation.
Around. This.
And it revolved around the fact that the people that are
Perfectionist and one thing our perfectionists in other things and the propagation or the generalization of taste across
Different domains.
The second. Is. Already named.
And it's the nasim talib framework of
Pick the surgeon who looks like a butcher.
In this framework. You would actually.
Go. To the surgeon who doesn't look very Charming. Put together, etc.
Because he didn't have to rely on.
Those.
Qualities.
For a successful career.
The underlying message here. Is that? When you succeed, in spite of something.
It's a Bigger signal of Entrancing quality.
Then when you succeed with something,
In this article I want to find the deletion between when the first framework is useful and when the other framework is better applied.
As a recent example I recently walked in to a dental clinic and was surprised to see how rickety it was but then realized that since I have been trying to book a appointment for a couple of weeks that means people are there for the quality of the work and not for house like the place looks. This compared to an experience a couple years ago and the same town where I went to a super slick modern looking Clinic with televisions on the ceiling and a very nice Lobby and an online booking system but the dental work was done by Young Dental graduates and my filling fell out a few weeks later.
[UPDATE: The clinic was terrible. Cheap places assume "minimal work" to save money since they see so many people just trying to put a bandaid on the issue]
I have to say that the font framework also has been quite predictive and that is some interesting truth and value in it. One possible explanation is that modern Coffee Culture is mostly recent and driven by a younger barista and coffee aficionado and when they make their Cafe they want everything to be nice and presentable including the outdoor sign and the decor
The Optimizer’s Curse (notes)
List of things that annoy an optimizer (not remotely comprehensive)
Boarding airplanes.
People blocking aisles while boarding when 200+ people are waiting to board
Flight attendants not encouraging people to clear aisles and speed boarding.
Flight attendants slowing everyone handing off candy while the whole plane is boarding in the rain and people are queueing on the stairs.
Water heaters around the world, reheating the water just after everyone else showered at home. Only to be wasted in the next 12 hours overnight.
Sprinklers running on “schedule” on rainy days
. Teas not served in a way you can remove the tea from the hot water on second serving.