Twice in the last month, I’ve overheard two different neighbors attempt to communicate with contractors performing work on their homes. In both cases, the contractors spoke just enough English to get by and both neighbors’ remedy for the language barrier was the same — talking louder and slower. This, of…

During an emergency trip to the hospital, I was inevitably asked for a urine sample to help diagnose the shooting pain in my abdomen. Unfortunately, the timing of their request didn’t coincide with my ability to provide one. “No problem”, said the nurse, “whenever you’re ready” and left a specimen…

Driving in Vermont, I came across a brilliant (though likely unintentional) psychological “nudge.” It was traffic sign of sorts nailed to a tree in someone’s yard. The sign read Drive Slowly Deaf Dog Now, before reading further, I encourage you to ponder those words for a few moments. (I certainly…

Being on camera is unintuitive, uncomfortable, and unnatural. It combines all of the unsettling fear of public speaking with the social disconnect of not actually being in front of people. Unlike in person, where eye contact with individual audience members is brief and constantly shifting, on camera, your stage is…

(This article hints at a much bigger topic that I’m sure I’ll attack eventually — the difference between what makes something easy to learn and what makes something easy or productive to use are not the same thing.) Given a task where one approach requires 3 steps and another approach…

Below are links and resources from the presentation on June 15th. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst www.amazon.com Rory Sutherland: The Wiki Man "Rory Sutherland is as outspoken as he is creative. A champion of behavioural economics and an early adopter of new…www.amazon.com Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness www.amazon.com Thinking, Fast and Slow Major New York Times bestsellerWinner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012Selected by the New…www.amazon.com