Let's be Fwends #132:

Take a Peek Inside Thought Processes

“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”

~ David Foster Wallace

Welcome to issue #132 of Let's be Fwends. Today, I have a great tool for creating better understanding for you and a really interesting read about Google and that maybe it's just not that useful anymore. Then we look at how the fear of regret influences us (and not in a good way), and how a bot turns an email trope into a source of daily delight.

Two Solutions to One Problem?

Have you ever wondered how it can happen that two capable, well-informed people propose two very different solutions to a problem? Sitting in a meeting and listening to the problem description, one person says we must do A, and the other person insists on doing B, which is not a nuance of A, but something completely different?

Most of our thinking is strictly internal, and the thought processes that lead from data to action are hidden from the rest of us. Even a minor difference in one of those stages can lead to very different outcomes. Instead of arguing back and forth, backtrack and find those differences with a great tool called "The Ladder of Inference".

The Ugly Backstory of How Google Search Became Ad-Driven

Ed Zitron's piece on events happening at Google around the year 2019 has quite the opening line:

"This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it."

It's a captivating read about a company that dropped its mantra of "Don't be Evil" and somehow needs to balance the needs of its ad-business with the best user experience.

How The Fear of Regret Shapes our Thoughts

Imagine two prehistoric humans. Let's call them Argle and Bargle for simplicity and with a nod to philosophy. Argle is open-minded, well-meaning, optimistic and curious. Bargle, on the other hand, is distrustful, pessimistic and easily frightened. Argle likes to explore, and enjoys contact with unknown animals and plants. Bargle runs up the trees the first time they hear an unfamiliar noise.

In a world filled with venomous snakes, sharp-clawed animals and poisonous plants, which one of the two has a better chance of survival, and thus a better chance to pass on their genes?

Just in case you're wondering why humans are hard-wired to fear.

"If we make a choice and it turns out to be wrong, we feel bad. But what if we make a choice, switch, and then find out our first decision was actually correct? We feel worse."

Geoffrey Engelstein lays out how a combination of different biases and effects make us more likely to stick to our initial decisions instead of switching even when in doubt.

I Hope This Email Finds You

"I hope this email finds you interesting enough for now."

A great mastodon bot for everyone who thinks starting an email with "I hope this email finds you well" is mildly infuriating:

I Hope This Email Finds You (@thisemailfindsyou@botsin.space) - botsin.space

Here's how it works:

"Posts to Mastodon completions to the sentence "I hope this email finds you." All content is sourced from Google Books, based on searches for phrases that satrt(sic!) with "finds you."

Source Code on Github

That's it for this edition of Let's be Fwends, take care and see you next time. 😱

Cover Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash