Life By Numbers
By Kevin
Nike+iPod Set
In this Wired article about The Nike Experiment, the power of living by numbers is demonstrated by the tracking device, Nike+ that is designed to provide runners with information (actually only speed and distance) of their runs.
Thanks to the article, I also got to learn about the Hawthorne Effect, which suggest that studying subjects would cause them to improve their behaviours as a result of their awareness of being observed even if they are not told what they are being studied on. Intuitively, it kind of makes sense and at a personal level when you are able to track data about yourself and monitor the figures, you'll tend to behave 'properly' so to speak. That goes to show that more often than not, discipline can be improved through feedback. Of course, for one to act upon the feedback, one must also trust it and people normally have no feud against raw numbers. That is what makes Nike+ such a success.
Write, darn, write!
By Kevin
As part of the phenomenon described by Anne Trubek in 'We are all Writers Now', I cannot help but agree with Anne that we are really doing so much more writing than we were years ago. I used to have really long phone chats with friends but they are now all replaced by long email correspondence if not 5-hour MSN chats interwoven with meals, occasional restroom breaks and possibly a trip to downstairs to get something for Mum. More importantly, I'm blogging more actively, and have more friends with blogs. I still remember the time when blogging was a relatively new phenomena amongst teens around the 2000s; for me, I was introduced to it only in 2002. Blogger was newly emerging and free blogs providers were all but common.
Another good read on More Intelligent Life related to writing and blogging includes 'Shakespeare would have had a blog' about innovations in lingo brought about by the aforementioned writing trend. There an article on 'Age of Mass Intelligence' that might also interest you too. More Intelligent Life functions as a blog sort of online publication with articles linked to each other via hypertext of their content, making it really a great place to explore a series of related articles.