@habits

I’ve had the habit for many years now to take notes of, or copy-and-save from, interesting knowledge whenever I came across it.

For longer form, I would sometimes publish it, like: TED talks, podcasts, and books.

For shorter form — like a good quote, a random fact, a few well written sentences, some YT or podcast trivia — I would save it into a note titled “Random Facts”. When a single “Random Facts” note became too long or unwieldy, I’d start a new one.

I’m currently adding to “Random Facts 16”. This started in 2015, so I average about 2 each year.

Recently — because I have too much time on my hands — I started to review all this accumulated knowledge from the very beginning.

Below are some selections from those notes. Whatever I find most interesting at the moment. It only covers “Random Facts 1”.

The majority is copied verbatim from original sources. But I also summarized and paraphrased a fair bit, too.

And as I review Random Facts 2, 3, and so on, I’ll publish individual posts for each.

You might find some of it interesting or useful…I hope!

RANDOM FACTS 1

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Two highlights from Evil by Roy Baumeister:
-magnitude gap. The importance of what takes place is almost always much greater for the victim than for the perpetrator. When trying to understand evil, one is always asking, “How could they do such a horrible thing?” But the horror is usually being measured in the victim’s terms. To the perpetrator, it is often a very small thing.
-Violent acts follow from high self-esteem, not from low self-esteem…it is more precise to say that violence ensues when people feel that their favorable views of themselves are threatened or disputed by others.

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People who undergo plastic surgery report (on average) high levels of satisfaction with the process, and they even report increases in the quality of their lives and decreases in psychiatric symptoms (such as depression and anxiety) in the years after the operation. The biggest gains were reported for breast surgery, both enlargement and reduction. I think the way to understand the long-lasting effects of such seemingly shallow changes is to think about the power of shame in everyday life.

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That illustrates a general rule: If a private enterprise is a failure, it closes down—unless it can get a government subsidy to keep it going; if a government enterprise fails, it is expanded

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“people do not feel guilty for enjoying too much, but for not being able to enjoy as much as they should”

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Bezos doesn’t agree implicitly with Thiel’s decision to sue Gawker, believes the best way to handle criticism is to develop a thick skin; also if you stand on a busy street corner and look at everyone, what do you think they’re thinking about? it’s not about you, stop worrying so much, go and do great things

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“even on the highest throne, we are seated, still, on our asses”

We want the respect of people who we don’t even respect

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Study: Guys who have strongest anger response to homosexual activity have greatest measured tumescence, blood flow to crotch

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– Slavery was first and foremost an economic enterprise
– From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, about 10 million African slaves were imported to America. About 70 per cent of them worked on the sugar plantations.
– me: it was run by markets and corporations which made on average six percent a year!!!

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– proponent of system 1 (automatic, intuitive) over system 2 (rational, conscious)
– brain takes in 11mb, conscious brain can only process 60 bits

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to Socrates the Good Life is: RATIONAL REFLECTION and INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY in society

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the federal government, as seen through the budget, is a massive insurance conglomerate with a large standing army – Ezra Klein

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from Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants, it’s very hard to ban technologies:
* gun was outlawed in Shogun Japan for three centuries
* exploration ships in Ming China for three centuries
* silk spinning in Italy for two centuries

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Bezos
-some things won’t change in 10 years – focus on those. for example: people will always want cheaper prices, more selection, faster & better service
-If you wanted to catch a wave, you’ll never do it. What you should do is position yourself and wait for the wave

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“time after time the really breakthrough thinkers in religious history are these taboo breakers”

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If you see your work as a calling, however, you find your work intrinsically fulfilling—you are not doing it to achieve something else. You see your work as contributing to the greater good or as playing a role in some larger enterprise the worth of which seems obvious to you. You have frequent experiences of flow during the work day, and you neither look forward to “quitting time” nor feel the desire to shout, “Thank God it’s Friday!” You would continue to work, perhaps even without pay, if you suddenly became very wealthy.

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A third feature of many ancient texts is that they emphasize practice and habit rather than factual knowledge. Confucius compared moral development to learning how to play music; both require the study of texts, observance of role models, and many years of practice to develop “virtuosity.” Aristotle used a similar metaphor: Men become builders by building houses, and harpists by playing the harp. Similarly, we grow just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising our self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage. — from Pursuit of Happiness

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very established studies showed those who had best health profiles, lost most weight, ate the most fat
the Mediterranean + high fat diet was so successful, they stopped the study because they felt it wasn’t ethically fair

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Truman: didn’t give specific “go” for bombs, just a range of days and 4 cities and operational conditions (e.g., must be able to see the target); one city (Kokura) spared twice, was supposed to be plan A for one bombing but bad weather, and plan B for another bombing but good weather

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Martin Luther — famous OCD, washed hands 5 hours a day, said “the more I wash my hands the dirtier they get”, famously obsessive/tedious about priestly responsibilities, spent multiple hours a day in confession, his senior Priest/mentor said “enough of this, God is not angry with you, you are angry with God”

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Humans have been making recognizable art for 30k years but agriculture for only 10k — Elizabeth Gilbert

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An 18 yo thinks they’ll only change as much as a 50 yo actually changes! — Dan Gilbert re: we underestimate how much we can (and actually do) change with age

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Scott Adams happiness formula:
– Eat right
– Exercise
– Get enough sleep
– Imagine an incredible future (even if you don’t believe it)
– Work toward a flexible schedule
– Do things you can steadily improve at
– Help others (if you’ve already helped yourself)
– Reduce daily decisions to routine

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“depression is aggression turned inward”

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from Slavoj: most important is that we believe others believe; we need that more than our own belief

what is evil? something that brutally interrupts the status quo; Jesus Christ is evil embodied for traditional pagan religions

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The boring lives of great men:
– Kant never went further than 10 mi from his home
– Socrates spent most of life with wife and lazy afternoons
– Marx after revolutions spent all his time in British Museum
– Darwin after around the world trip rarely left his house
– I think Murakami lives in a small quiet village with his wife, runs a lot and writes a lot

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keys to excellence: all about excellent habits, mundanely built and repeated over time, small wins
elite swimmers love what regular swimmers hate e.g., the early morning practices

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same study showed asset allocation determined 100+% of investor returns (!) — because securities selection and market timing are often negative sum games

in long-run, small cap equities return by far the most, but much more volatile (e.g., during Great Depression, this asset class lost 90% of value in a few years)

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chess grandmasters spend 6-7K calories a day when in matches — all from thinking!

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We don’t remember anything: David Brooks relays story about a professor’s class when they found out about the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. He asked them at that very moment to write down what they were doing and how they felt about it. 5 years later he emailed all of them and asked them, where were you when the Challenger disaster happened? 40% got it wrong. They were still incredulous when he showed them the letters they had written.

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in school and growing up, you did well if you’re good at a lot of things — extracurriculars, sports, academics
in real-world, you’re awarded for being REALLY good at ONE thing

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Elephants have the largest brains among mammals, and whales while at 20x body mass are only 2x brain mass, elephants are known to have evolved brains with complex structures associated with emotions, cognition, and memory; among smartest non-human animals, and often remember bad trainers even years later

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Bin Ladens became rich at this time, one of principle builders to Royal family

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perversity, futility, or jeopardy framework for conservative critiques of any progressive reforms

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Among cops, only a small minority use force, consistent and noticeable sub-set

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Tim wrote 4HWW by writing an email to a friend

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7 is the world’s favorite number; controlled across cultures and genders

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not saying religious are better than atheists; religious theologians have described inner life much better, for much longer; concepts of sin, virtue, redemption, grace, they have the right concepts, spent 5K years working on it

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Monopoly strategy from How Stuff Works
-stay at 3 houses, jump to hotel isn’t worth it
-never have more than 300 in cash
-6, 8, and 9th positions after jail are best

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don’t point at people — considered annoying
preschooler laughs 400x/day and adult laughs 15

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brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things – Randy Pausch

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800 languages spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world

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bacteria outnumber our own cells 10:1, account for 99.9% of unique genes in our body

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Planet Money podcast on how Korea replicated American pop
* Keys: distribution, key godfather figure (a Korean jimmy iovine), manufacture it – piano alley pumping out songs
* in Korea, music always came with a visually engaging video

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knowledge of voice is around knowledge of face pre-Ekman (emotions)

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Japanese diet is all carbs, no fat; the Atkins diet is all fat, no carbs; they both work, but what do they have in common? they both eliminate the sugar fructose!
another key cause: removal of fiber – we consume less than 10% of what we used to

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last few decades, huge break between HS degree and college degree holders; before, roughly similar demographics, now college degree holders have 1/3 of obesity rates, smoking rates, divorce rates

when look at people under 35, it’s a generation of “intense social repair” – teen pregnancies down, domestic violence down, divorce rates down, abortion rates down – “gonna have the biggest midlife crisis in human history in about 10 years”; lack a sense of acute personal weakness and how to combat against it

a former president, when asked by Brooks what was one thing he learned in government that he didn’t know beforehand, said that he used to think it was 75% policy and 25% personalities and relationships, but now realizes it’s 98% personalities and relationships…it’s about the intimate bonds

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“the ugliest websites make the most money. Amazon. Craigslist.” — Jason Fried (paraphrasing)

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what matters in meditation is not focus, it’s when your mind wanders, bringing it back; the “bringing it back” strengthens connectivity in the attention circuitry

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emotions are contagious and spread by
1. expressivity of person
2. power/hierarchy
3. stability – why a monk can calm an angry person

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behaviorally inhibited – these are the “shy” kids – thought it was genetic, but when study parents, it’s the parents who identify you as “she’s shy” and protect you, those kids don’t change – but the parents who say “go ahead and try it anyway”, those kids are less nervous

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Malcolm Gladwell reads trashy thrillers; both parents were writers (Jamaican mom wrote a memoir; dad writes esoteric math texts)

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The GAN – Great American Novel – often is sweeping view of American life, like Dickens who covers street sweepers and rich society ladies in a single book; John Updike and Tom Wolfe battle frequently to write it; one of best: Huck Finn

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“meditation is as deep and as powerful a tool as we have” – Josh Waitzkin

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Very common when you’re an expert in a profession to overestimate how your abilities translate into other professions
– eg, chess grandmasters are extremely good at recreating chess game layouts, which assumes superb memory, but when those pieces’s positions were randomized, they performed poorly (so it was learned pattern recognition, not super memory)
– eg, poker players are extremely good at randomizing their betting patterns, but when they were asked to randomize their playing patterns in rock-paper-scissors, they performed poorly

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the Cave — prisoners chained to only see the wall, behind them is a fire, between them and the fire is a road of people, they see shadows on the cave’s wall and think that’s life; when prisoners are freed, they walk toward the fire and eventually realize that they’re missing the big picture, they walk outside and see the sun and realize there’s even more

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the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey started as a church, became a mosque, and is now a museum

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Japan has the most architects per capita in the world
* majority of homes are disposable
* half of homes are destroyed after 38 yrs

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“You have 50k thoughts in a day. Maybe 20% are useful. How can you increase the ratio?” – James Altucher

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Inch is the width of a man’s thumb
Acre is the amount of land a man and cow (?) could plow in a day

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Gladwell loves Michael Lewis: all story, no science. believes he’s underrated. 50 years from now people will read him

When you write about someone or quote something, people associate that w you!! Gladwell and all the science that he used, he once gave a speech and attributed a claim to a particular person 5 times, and makes one mention of his book, and a discussion forum claimed afterward that he took all the credit. People can’t or won’t do the triangulation

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From Simmons podcast: Popovich as innovator
* first the corner 3
* finding overlooked overseas talent, generally older and with diverse life experiences
* resting top talent more than average team (no starters average more than 30 mpg)
* starting unusual lineups
* thorough culture of modesty and hard work and teamwork
* family atmosphere, people stay a long time, alums are welcomed to dinners and gatherings

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Unemployment rolls may be static/decreasing, but that’s because #1 a lot of people have simply stopped looking for work, #2 food stamp rolls have increased dramatically (from 21M to 47M Americans in last 5 years), and #3 more and more people are qualifying for disability claims (currently 9M, doubled from 1995)

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the psychology happiness research really started in 2003, and pretty much stopped by 2009

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It took Tyson 14 years to convince McDonald’s to offer the McNugget! in 1983

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We are the most honest with search engines – they know more about us than our families! – from a TED podcast on privacy

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Kaihogyo monks (marathon monks of Mount Hiei): walk nearly 20 miles a day for 100 straight days, do this for 7 years, if fail must commit suicide (although believe this practice was stopped in the last several centuries); wear thin grass sandals, often wear through 3-5 pairs a day; if complete it, you become a living saint; only 40 or so people have completed it in the last 4 centuries; one man completed it twice (once in his 50s), he’s now famous in Japan

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China Communist Party is one of most meritocratic (the party membership itself); very few from privileged backgrounds, very few princelings, high upward mobility, high levels of education

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Dave Mustaine started Megadeth, but publicly admittedly he felt like a failure because he was originally kicked out of Metallica. Happiness is relative. Choose your yardstick(s) carefully

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Every creative art form takes decades to be accepted – novels were inferior to poetry…photography to painting…film…

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Greeks had 2 meanings for “utopia”:
Eu-topos – the good place
Ou-topos – the place that cannot be

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The Inner Game of Tennis:
-don’t just watch the ball, watch the seams; go the next level
-listen to the sound at contact. reproduce those good sounds
-your competitor is your friend because he is your enemy – he is challenging you to become better and rise to a new level

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Twain: “If you catch an adjective, kill it”

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Bob Mankoff, New Yorker cartoon editor: humor is benign violation. Just benign is boring. Too violating, and people will reject it

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Gretchen Rubin
-who do you envy and why
–what do you lie about
-what did you do for fun when you were 10

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The single most important factor in being a good parent is being a good husband/wife. “Great marriages produce great parents”

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Fear, hate, tits and the weather – German saying regarding what people enjoy reading in tabloids

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Adam Carolla: Women treat cars like men treat relationships. As long as it works they’re fine, but they don’t get the checkups, they don’t pump the tires, they don’t change the oil, and when it breaks down they’re like what happened to my car? Men are the same way with relationships, we just sorta assume it’s fine as long as it’s there and it’s working.

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Guys’ brains light up while looking at pics of hot girls in the same way that girls’ brains light up while in conversation
Guys either have feelings at the beginning or they don’t…they rarely “develop” them the way girls do
When viewing pics of other guys (or was it gay porn?), guys’ brains light up as a threat and then an anger response

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John McPhee on how to write:
-all about the lead, it should shine “like a flashlight down the rest of the piece”, once you have it the whole thing is easier
–titles are “so key”
-always try to make things simpler, use shorter words

He had just written Jaws, and the thing I was so awed by and so admired about Peter was that he never stopped. Peter wrote and wrote and wrote. He wrote books, he wrote screenplays, he wrote National Geographic pieces, he got expeditions going about all kinds of oceanographic things, he got into the biology of fishes—he never stopped, he just kept it up. The fact that he made all this money—life was about something else. And this was the lovely thing; Peter Benchley was one of the nicest people that will ever walk the earth.

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Getting married causes a 2-year increase in happiness. Once you have children happiness steadily declines until they leave the house (18-20 years later), then marriage happiness starts to increase once again

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We have a functional and complex neural network or ‘brain’ in the gut, called the enteric brain, and fear is mediated by this brain. The # of neurons in our gut is equivalent to that of a cat!

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8-year olds learn through positive feedback (their brains trigger no response to negative feedback)
12-year olds can respond to negative feedback

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Group intelligence affected by 3 things (beyond the average IQ of each group participant): #1, social sensitivity of the group, #2, the amount of equality in discussion/conversation (more balance is better than one dominant person), and #3 the % of women in the group (there is no upper limit!)

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There are black holes that have mass equivalent to BILLIONS of our sun!!!! The largest is like 17 billion suns

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In newborns the brain requires a staggering 87 percent of the body’s total energy. Even in adults this figure is at least a quarter.

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“Grant Effect” – over time, people become more emotionally in-tune. Like the Flynn Effect (over time IQ scores rise). Grant study tracked men over a long period of time. Biggest predictor of success, more than social status, body physiognomy, and birth order, was emotional affect

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No correlation between a student’s preferred learning style and her ability to comprehend and retain information. (WSJ)

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It turns out that since the late nineties, the share of automobile miles driven by Americans in their twenties has dropped from 20.8 percent to just 13.7 percent. And if one looks at teens, future shifts seem likely to be greater. The number of nineteen-year-olds who have opted out of earning driver’s licenses has almost tripled since the late seventies, from 8 percent to 23 percent.

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Of course other people’s insecurities are just reflections of your own. If someone else is feeling insecure with you, that’s a hint and a half that you aren’t secure in how you’re living or in what you’re getting into. When you get secure, the people around you feel quite secure as well.

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Having K12 students focus on coherent, well-argued, organized, analytical writing makes dramatic differences in school performance, knowledge retention, standardized testing,

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Hare Krishan’s incredibly effective tactic for soliciting donations – give something free to a prospect (a book, a flower) and people are hardwired to reciprocate – this overwhelms the “liking” factor – they’ll reciprocate even if they DISLIKE you!

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..brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas. from The New Yorker

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Alcohol “proof” – used to test if gunpowder would light the alcohol on fire to prove its alcoholic content. It would only light at 57%, thus 100 proof = proof that there was at least 50% alcohol, which is why proof now is 2x the actual alcohol %

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96% of all matter is dark matter or dark energy – what we can see is only 4% OF WHAT EXISTS

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no one has any idea how many species are actually on Earth, or what percentage we have identified, even to the nearest magnitude – Kevin Kelly

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Rupert Sheldrake: banned TED talk, even the constants change like speed of light, big drop in early 1900s, the way they solved it was to change the meter in terms of light, so force light to be a constant instead of a meter, same goes for gravity and other constants, they’re always changing

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Bit-torrent protocol accounts for ~20% of Internet bandwidth usage
// The 2022 “Global Internet Phenomena” report shows that, globally, less than 3% of all consumer traffic can be attributed to BitTorrent. This percentage was as high as 35% in the mid 2000s, but the internet has changed dramatically since then