by david allan van nostrand | Feb 22, 2021 | Human Behavior, Organizational Behavior, The Myopia of Experts
Governor-general and city builder Grigory Potemkin built fake villages along the banks of the Dneiper River to impress Russian Empress Catherine the Great during her journey to Crimea in 1787. The structures would be secretly disassembled after she passed and...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 15, 2021 | Artificial Intelligence, Shaky Science, Voodoo Statistics
Long before automated resumé screening, a friend complained long and loud about how every time he needed to hire someone to work in the office, the phone would ring all day. Most of the applicants who called about the job were not the kind of people who had resumés or...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 8, 2021 | Artificial Intelligence, critical thinking, numeracy
The game show Let’s Make a Deal was first shown on American television in 1963. It has been overhauled several times since then, with new hosts, models, and sets. In the original version, Monty Hall chose contestants from screaming audience members who dressed in...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 1, 2021 | Human Behavior, Misinformation traps, Organizational Behavior
William Lederer and Eugene Burdick wrote a fictional novel called The Ugly American*. The title refers to the world’s belief that typical Americans are insensitive to the languages, customs, traditions, religions, and backgrounds of peoples of other lands and...
