This Week in EID - Episode 43

I had a lot of fun writing the articles for EID this week.  We covered a lot of very diverse subjects and the discussion that some of the posts generated on the LinkedIn Groups where we repost the links was vibrant.  Here is the weekly recap:

On Monday, I made what I thought was a very astute parallel between showing my students respect by learning how to pronounce their names and doing the opposite to terrorist groups by creating disrespectful names for them. This train of thought was instigated by the ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State argument that was going on in Washington, but I like my name better than all of their choices.

Tuesday’s post on legacy icon images is the one that stimulated the most online comment.  I cross posted this to some UX-focused groups, HF-focused groups, and psych-related groups.  This was a great example of how professionals with different backgrounds will have different perspectives.  All of the discussion had supporters and haters.  But all from very different points of view.  It would have been interesting to mix them all up and have them debate each other.  That is one of the limitations of using LinkedIn groups I suppose.

The brain stimulation idea in Wednesday’s post on multitasking is a good example of why it helps to have at least moderate exposure to many different sciences and sectors if you want to be effective at divergent-convergent thinking.  There is a lot of research on how important this combination is for innovation.  That is one of the reasons I enjoy composing articles like this one.

And then I had to get in touch with my touchy-feely side with the post on Thursday about Patagonia and Recaptcha’s business models.  They both do something with social good as part of their regular course of business.  And this is partially how they attract business, even though the social benefits are not really part of the transaction.  But many consumers (including me) feel good when we do business with a company that does good.  Not as a quid pro quo for the transaction, but just because it is the right thing to do.  There is actually some solid research on how this ‘reciprocity by proxy’ effect happens.

See you next week!!