by david allan van nostrand | Mar 23, 2020 | Items in the News, Organizational Behavior, The Myopia of Experts, Unintended Consequences
Konrad Putzier wrote in the Wall Street Journal how after years of crowding office workers into ever-smaller spaces, we are finally coming to realize that our high-density offices are ideal places to spread disease. Because so many of us are spending so much time in...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 1, 2019 | Items in the News, Research, Unintended Consequences, Using Information
The most common ad testing research waits until the very last moment to do the fastest and cheapest research possible. Paid study subjects are shown an ad that has been slickly produced and is ready to go. The only purpose of this research is to make sure the...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 17, 2019 | Unintended Consequences, Using Information, Voodoo Statistics
Volume of ramp is 1920cu in vs 3 cu in for test. If you saw those exact words, would you have cancelled the Challenger launch because conditions were dangerous and the likelihood of failure was high? Me neither, and here’s why. Westerners read from top to...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 18, 2019 | Fads, Unintended Consequences
Travelers are leaving their hotel rooms and heading for the lobby for a couple of good reasons. One is that the ever-smaller rooms have no space for tables, chairs, or desks and so are less comfortable than ever before. Another is that the lobby is now a happening...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 3, 2018 | Constant Contact, Items in the News, Unintended Consequences
Nearly half of American smartphone owners say they can’t live without it. I guess not, when on average, Americans check theirs 85 times a day. Everyone already knows that using smartphones is a distraction.* But few of us know that even when we turn them off, they...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 23, 2018 | Big Data, Items in the News, Unintended Consequences
Since the earliest days of television, Nielsen has ruled the TV audience-measuring roost. Using a combination of set meters, code readers, and personal diaries, they have collected Americans’ viewing habits and sold the data to networks and advertisers. But...
