by david allan van nostrand | Feb 24, 2020 | Human Behavior, Items in the News
As each stove came down the assembly line, I plugged a two-pronged electric heating coil into a socket and secured it with two screws: bzzt bzzt with an airgun, like a Nascar tire changer but slower. Four calrods*, eight screws: bzzt bzzt…bzzt bzzt…bzzt...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 17, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Items in the News, Misinformation traps
We cannot say how much research costs any more than we can say how much a car costs until we’ve asked and answered lots of important questions. Do we want a new car or a used car? Two, three, four, or five doors? Will our car be the bare bones version or the one with...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 10, 2020 | Gatekeepers, Items in the News, Using Information
A new survey by Pew Research Center found how over the course of the last 12 months, people went to libraries twice as often as they went to see movies in theaters (10.5 times vs 5.3 times). Does this strike you as odd? Me, too. The study also says things are the...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 3, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Organizational Behavior, Using Information
A few weeks ago I asked readers if it would surprise them to hear that when it comes to research, the top brass almost never ask to see the ingredients label. This earned me a bunch of amen, brothers from people who have seen firsthand how too few executives ask the...