 Curiosity
Curiosity is essential today as an antidote to our commercial culture, which eschews contemplation and elevates our desire to acquire above our desire to learn. Here are some lucid articles on fascinating topics, all of which validate the Yiddish proverb: "[One] should go on living, if only to satisfy his curiosity." • 1491: What America was really like before Columbus came, from the Atlantic Monthly • Closed captions: How they do it, from the Atlantic Monthly • The global history of democracy, from the New Republic • Hindsight bias: How we overestimate the probability of an event after it happens, by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. • Infidelity: Its true causes, from the New York Times Magazine. • Itching: Why do we do it? What is it, biologically? From The New York Times • Journalism: What goes wrong and what should go right, from The American Prospect • At mission control after a failed Mars rover mission, from the Washington Post • Paper: why it will endure in a technological age, by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker • Salmon: What saving them says about our priorities, from the Atlantic Monthly • Six Degrees of Separation principle, by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker • SUV's: An unlikely success story, a scary safety story, by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker • Ten Percent Myth: Correcting a common assumption about the brain, from the Skeptical Inquirer • Traffic: Why the problem will never be solved, from the New Yorker • TV sweeps: Why they're the worst weeks of the year, and why nobody will do anything about it, from the New Yorker More articles to come... |