Why do we fear the unknown more than the known? That's a larger question than I can answer here (not that I'm capable anyway), but it probably has to do with the heuristics — the shortcut guesses — our brains use to solve problems, and the fact that these heuristics rely on the information already stored in our memories. And what gets stored away? Anomalies — the big, rare, "black swan" events that are so dramatic, so unpredictable, and perhaps world-changing, that they imprint themselves on our memories and con us into thinking of them as typical, or at least likely, whereas in fact they are extraordinarily rare.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
The Cost of Fearing Strangers
So which would scare you more: an American Muslim family you knew nothing about or the guy from your church who had just gone through a divorce? You would probably get this wrong; most of us are terrible at risk assessment. Stephen J. Dubner on why the things we fear the most are simply irrational:
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Field Notes
Weekend Food Blogging: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies need just a few ingredients, and are easy to make. I've paired them with a suitably complementary simple web layout.
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Tech Law Crystal Ball
What's in store for Canada in 2009 in the area of technology law and policy? Michael Geist's month-by-month blow predicts entrenched positions, slow, comprised progress on issues like copyright reform and net neutrality, only to be interrupted and displaced off the agenda by a November election (the fourth in six years). Funny in a laugh-instead-of-cry kind of way.
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Drug Companies, Doctors and Corruption
Clinical trials are broken. In her review of three recently published books about the collusion between influential doctors and pharmaceutical companies, Marcia Angell reveals the systematic biases inherent in the very scientific method designed ensure best medical practices. Knowledge translation rests on the assumption that evidence-based research must make its way into practice. Her conclusion is sickening:
It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of TheNew England Journal of Medicine.
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The Amateur Gourmet: On Learning the Basics