Psychology

Beware of alarm fatigue

Hospitals are loud. Everything is buzzing and beeping for your attention, and the resulting cacophony is one of the causes of alarm fatigue. But we’re all susceptible to it – regardless if we’ve ever worn scrubs to work.

March 18, 2024

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People actually like being told what to do

Here’s something that feels like it shouldn’t be the case: People like being told what to do. We like being told what the best restaurants are, what we’re supposed to wear to an event, and which kitchen appliance is the best value. Just this Sunday, millions of people tuned in to the Oscars, in part to be told what movies were the best ones to watch.

March 11, 2024

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Repetition, repetition, repetition – but not too much

When you hear something once, you forgot it. When you hear it a couple of times, you remembered it. But when you hear it too many times, you despise it. This sort of thing happens with chores, advertising, political messages, and more. Some repetition is good. Too much and you’ve just annoyed your audience.

February 26, 2024

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Rubberducking: The power of talking it out

There's a trope plays out in dozens of films, shows, and novels – one small prompt from an outsider, or even just the act of explaining something to them, unlocks the solution our protagonist has been looking for the whole time. It seems like a fictional cliche, but if you’ve ever sat with a real-life computer programmer, this sort of thing actually happens quite a bit.

February 5, 2024

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The gift of desire lines

Today, I woke up to the first snowfall in New York City in 701 days – the longest snowless stretch in history, beating the previous record by nearly a full year.It’s pretty when I look out my window to take in the snow-covered city for the first time in nearly two years. But beyond the aesthetics, there’s something else that the snow can show us.

January 16, 2024

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Ben Guttmann