A slowly extending collection of interesting articles on philosophy, psychology, writing, computer science and information systems. Writing "The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami" (Anderson, 21st of October 2011) The article touches upon the 'strangeness' of characters and worlds Murakami invents. Asked about the 'Little People' a strange occurrence of surreal creatures starring in his most recent novel 1Q84, Murakami remarks: “The Little People came suddenly. [...] I don’t know who they are. I don’t know what it means. I was a prisoner of the story. I had no choice. They came, and I described it. That is my work.” Psychology "The Rise of the New Groupthink" by SUSAN CAIN, January 13, 2012 Argues that groups often perform worse than individuals and promotes work in isolation and solitude. A little bit one-sided but also a number of interesting comments below the articla. "The Limits of Empathy" By David Brooks (Link) A number of studies have found that empathy has only a small influence on our decisions. Moreover, it is argued that empathy does not necessarily lead to better decisions; for instance, the bias to help the cute rather than the ugly even when the latter are in greater need of help. "Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence" (Kahneman, 19th of October 2011) Article from Nobel price winning psychologist (in economics) Daniel Kahneman discussing many of his central research themes regarding common cognitive biases. For instance, he discusses that investment firms were not able to digest the statistical evidence provided that performance of traders was to a very large degree based solely on luck. He concludes: "[O]verconfident professionals sincerely believe they have expertise, act as experts and look like experts. You will have to struggle to remind yourself that they may be in the grip of an illusion". Also a very nice example if not of academic writing at least of a piece of writing discussing academic themes in an approachable manner. Philosophy "The Stone: Beyond New Atheism" by Gary Gutting (Link) "The Stone: The Meaningfulness of Lives" (May, 11th of September 2011) Politics "Warming Revives Dream of Sea Route in Russian Arctic" (Kramer, 17th of October 2011) Without a doubt, an increase in global temperatures can cause great damage to both the environment and human beings. However, what positive effects can an increase in global temperature possibly have. In particular, since humankind's bane were historically ice ages rather than periods of above-average temperatures. Programming "Coding for success" by Andy Young (link) "Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns" (Yegge, 30th of March, 2006) Entertaining little piece on some shortcomings of the Java programming language; in specific the difficulties in using the command design pattern (that's at least my interpretation): any "action" to be performed in Java must be encapsulated in a class, which can make programs a little bit verbose. Business "What’s Luck Got to Do With It?" (Collins and Hansen, 29th of October 2011) Refers to a study, which attempted to establish if the success or demise of companies can be traced back to lucky and unlucky events influencing their fortune in ways out of their control. They establish that luck is not so important as being able to make good use of this luck. However, one might also argue that one is lucky, when one can make good use of ones luck ... Research "Cognitive Style as a Basis for MIS and DSS Designs: Much ado about Nothing?" (Huber, 1983) An article showing the inconsistencies of a number of research articles and argues that a fair amount of research is based on invalid initial assumptions. "The Gadsby Syndrome in IS Research: Rev. 0.1" (Fitzgerald, accessed 2/11/2011) |