May 30, 2020

Synthesis: 💯 interesting stuff on leading, learning, and living better

By Andrew Savikas • Issue #2 • View online

Yes, websites really are starting to look more similar

🎶 Little boxes on the hillside

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes on the hillside

Little boxes all the same 🎵

Driven in part by the proliferation of common frameworks and libraries like Bootstrap and jQuery, the Web is empirically getting more homogenous:

We found that across all three metrics – color, layout and AI-generated attributes – the average differences between websites peaked between 2008 and 2010 and then decreased between 2010 and 2016. Layout differences decreased the most, declining over 30% in that time frame.

theconversation.com • Share

Why is the modern world so ugly?

OTOH maybe the Web is just triangulating on the same kinds of unifying principles and practices behind our (pre-modern) built environment:

For most of history, it was well understood that the last thing one needed in an architect was ‘originality’ – no more than one would want originality in a carpenter or a bricklayer. The job of an architect was just to turn out a building roughly like all the other buildings in a district and to do so politely and on time; it was certainly not to express a distinctive personality, emphasise their differences or make a splash. As a result, most districts of most cities looked very alike. You couldn’t really tell who had done what building and it didn’t matter (just as it doesn’t especially matter who baked a loaf of bread). Architecture was beautifully impersonal and repetitive.

www.theschooloflife.com • Share

Trick Yourself into Breaking a Bad Habit

A lot of the articles from HBR can feel like intellectual fast food – providing a jolt of inspiration or affirmation that soon wears off. This one is more like a handful of almonds, delivering something more useful and long-lasting:

We are especially naïve about the degree to which our physical surroundings shape our choices. For example, what you eat is shaped far more by what you see than by what you search for. A glittering bowl of Lindt chocolate truffles on a colleague’s desk initiates an inexorable cognitive process that ends only when you succumb to its seduction. Seeing is eating.

(Also: can you tell I’m hungry?)

hbr.org • Share

A Framework for Thinking About Systems Change

If you’ve been in the same room as me and a whiteboard, you know I’m a fan of mental models. This is one of my favorites, and belongs in the toolbox of anyone interested in effective change.

intenseminimalism.com • Share

Why is This Website Port Scanning me

🤔

A Port scan can give a website information about what software you are running. Many ports have a well defined set of services that use them, so a list of open ports gives a pretty good view of running applications. For instance, Steam (a gaming store and platform) is known to run on port 27036, so a scanner seeing that port open could have reasonable confidence that the user also had steam open while visiting the web site.

nullsweep.com • Share

The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

We can’t (or won’t) stay inside forever, and when it’s time to venture out, it’s useful to understand the relative risks of different environments:

Basically, as the work closures are loosened, and we start to venture out more, possibly even resuming in-office activities, you need to look at your environment and make judgments. How many people are here, how much airflow is there around me, and how long will I be in this environment.

www.erinbromage.com • Share

Why We Can’t Sit Quietly In A Room Alone

In 2014, psychologist named Timothy Wilson published several studies in which people were left alone with their thoughts, for between six and fifteen minutes, in order to gauge how much they liked it. He found that people generally hate it.

This sounds hokey, but “practice sitting by yourself, alone” comes with my personal guarantee that it will improve your life. 🧘

www.raptitude.com • Share

This week's random highlight from my bookshelf